His music upsets you – peacefully; stirs you to your very depths and is like no other. Ludovico Einaudi manages to popularize the genre of classical music while incorporating into his musical universe many other genres as well, magically blending and harmonizing them. He is coming to the Herodion for the second time since 2014 to perform his new album Elements, which has climbed to the top of the classical music charts, and is once again expected to thoroughly captivate his audience.
An avant-garde classicist
Einaudi completed his studies as a musician and composer of classical music. However, despite a promising career as a piano soloist, he soon took to composing pieces in various genres, influenced by the composer Luciano Berio, his teacher and mentor. In his musical compositions, many of which have become soundtracks to well-known films, he often combines and juxtaposes pop, rock, folk and electronica, creating an ambient, classical, modern sound.
His new album, Elements
Recorded in his native Italy, Elements employs different instruments and is influenced by mathematics and other sciences, literature, colors and landscapes and, naturally, a mix of different genres. It has already proved a hit with audiences, who are transported on a journey through the worlds of image, thought and emotion.
From his beginnings as a visual artist until today, Dimitris Papaioannou has charted a 30-year course of original creativity, harmoniously weaving together his many abilities as a choreographer, director, painter, interpreter, curator and comic-book artist. In his newest work – The Great Tamer – Papaioannou brings 10 performers onstage to depict human life as a journey of discovery and hidden treasures, a plunge into the depths of the soul which promises to bring to the surface the deepest meanings of existence.
At The Onassis Cultural Center
In the welcoming space of the Onassis Cultural Center, Dimitris Papaioannou will present his new work, which is scheduled to tour mainly European cities until March 2018. In this new work he casts a fresh look at a subject which has been at the center of his concern for 30 years: how to present an image with the greatest possible simplicity and at the same time highlight the sacred element residing within even the most mundane act or situation.
Dimitris Papaioannou – the creator
From his studies in painting beside Yannis Tsarouchis when only 17 years of age, to his dance classes in Greece and New York and the creation of Edafos Dance Theater with Angeliki Stellatou in 1986, Dimitris Papaioannou has tirelessly forged a career full of important – and acclaimed – milestones. One such event was his Medea in 1993 and its revival in 2008 in Athens and Beijing, while his introduction to a far wider audience occurred with his production of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
The Great Tamer will play until June 11 on the center stage of the Onassis Cultural Center.
The greatest living stars from the world of Russian ballet, representing the Bolshoi and Mariinsky (Kirov) theaters, will give a spellbinding demonstration of technical and artistic prowess at the Athens Concert Hall in excerpts from timeless masterpieces of classical ballet: Swan Lake, Giselle, Le Corsaire, Spartacus, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet.
Lead dancer – Ivan Vasiliev
Since bursting onto the scene a decade ago, Ivan Vladimirovitch Vasiliev has had no peer in classical dance, garnering an astounding number of honors and prizes: First prizes in the Arabesque-96 Ballet and Moscow International Ballet competitions, special distinction at the Varna International Ballet Competition, acclaimed as “one of 25 to watch” by Dance Magazine in 2008, the Benois Prix de la Danse in 2009, Virtuosity Prize of International Dance Open in St. Petersburg in 2010, declared the ”best dancer in Great Britain” in 2011 and “Honoured Artist of Russia” in 2014…. Vasiliev is today considered the finest dancer in the world, and even if he were not joined for this gala performance by some of the most talented ballet artists alive, he would still, by virtue of his brilliance, be able to fill the Christos Lambrakis Hall on his own.
The stars of the gala
Dancing beside Vasiliev will be: his partner Kristina Kretova; first ballerina of the Bolshoi Nina Kaptsova; Bolshoi’s first soloist Mikhail Lobukhin – famed for his performance as Spartacus in the opera of that name; lead dancers of the Mariinsky Theater Yevgeny Ivanchenko and Leonid Sarafanor; and the troupe’s three prima ballerinas: Oxana Skorik, Elena Yevseyeva and Yekaterina Osmolkina. At the Athens Concert Hall on the 20th and 21st of May for two much-awaited performances.
On April 5, the Museum of Cycladic Art launched a new exhibition entitled “The DESTE Prize: An Anniversary Exhibition, 1999-2015”. The showcasing of 9 works by recipients of the DESTE Prize over the course of its 18-year history gives the public an opportunity to get to know, or see again, key works by these artists, works which express their perspective on: thought, memory, time, space, events and life - by way of painting, engraving, installations, video and performances.
ΤHE AWARDS
The DESTE Prizes were established in 1999 and every two years are awarded to a Greek or Cypriot artist. From 1999 to 2015, a total of 9 DESTE Prizes have been awarded for exceptional contemporary work by creative Greek and Cypriot artists living and working either at home or abroad. With these prizes, the DESTE Foundation hopes to promote and support contemporary art and a new generation of up-and-coming young Greek and Cypriot artists.
ΤHE MUSEUM
For the fifth year, The Museum of Cycladic Art is hosting the DESTE Prize as part of its “Young Views” program. This program gives the Museum a dynamic platform for exchanging ideas with a younger audience on the meaning and significance of contemporary creativity. The exhibition will run until 17 September 2017.
