Music Day 2017

On the occasion of the Music Day, which is established on the 21st of June, but also respecting the Athens State Orchestra's meeting with its audience in the Megaron Concert Hall Gardens, Members of the Young Musician's Academy of the Athens State Orchestra 2017 present the famous Serenade for Strings of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

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Tectonics Festival - Athens 2017

How can an orchestra, the 19th-century beast, be more radical and experimental?” Taking this question as its starting point, Tectonics Festival has traveled to Glasgow, New York, Oslo, Reykjavik, Adelaide and Tel Aviv, breaking down sound barriers along the way and bringing together seemingly incompatible musical practices. In its Athenian version, the Athens State Orchestra plays under the baguette of the curator of the festival and celebrated conductor, Ilan Volkov and with Fred Frith, the distinguished guitarist.

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Water Music - Music for the Royal Fireworks

The Athens State Orchestra presents two pieces of George Frideric Handel which bring us mentally to London:

"Water Music" to the River Thames in early 18th century, where it premiered in response to King George I's request for a concert, and "Music for the Royal Fireworks", premiered in London's Green Park, under contract of George II.

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Battleship Potemkin

A landmark masterpiece in the history of cinema and arguably the greatest silent film ever made, Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin will be shown at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The Athens State Orchestra, under the baton of distinguished conductor Jens Troester, will perform live Shostakovich’s music, accompanying Eisenstein’s 65 minutes of breathtaking cinematic narration.

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Symphony from the Third World

Maestro Joaquín Orellana, one of Latin America’s foremost composers, interprets the recent history and soundscape of Guatemala within a larger imagination, influenced by colonialism, civil war, economic deprivation, as well as cultural exchange and innovation, all expressed by the notion of the Third World. The performance is the world premiere of the symphony.

Director of percussion  «Útiles Sonoros»: Dimitris Desyllas
Director of “Little Musicians” Choir of Athens Conservatoire: Christina Michalaki, under the artistic direction of Kalliope Germanou

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Greek days in Belgrade - Aenaon Quartet

With great pleasure, as well as with an eclectic hellenocentric program that includes great musical creations of the 20th and 21st century, the Aenaon Quartet of the Athens State Orchestra has accepted the kind invitation of the organizers of the cultural events that will take place in the Serbian capital, from April 20 to April 29, as part of the project “Greek Days in Belgrade”, which will be held under the auspices of the Greek Embassy in Belgrade. The timing proximity of the concert with Easter was the reason that led the Quartet to choose from the repertoire of symbolic Greek composers, mainly music linked directly or latently with the spirit and the Greek tradition of the period.

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Concert in Bucharest for the National Day of Greece

The Greek National day of March 25 gave the motivation and the chance to the Hellenic Embassy in Romania and to the Ambassador Vassiliios Papadopoulos to organize, one day later, in March 26, in the famous concert hall of Ateneul Roman in Bucharest, a concert given by the String Quartet of Athens State Orchestra.
It is very important that the concert will take place in the famous Ateneul Roman of Bucharest, a building-symbol of Romanian Culture and History; Ateneul Roman was built in the heart of the city of Bucharest 120 years ago, to become an architectural and spiritual expression of the Culture of Romania: The choice of the Concert Hall that will host the concert is also a discreet reference to the friendship and the collaboration between Romania and Greece.
The program chosen for this concert by the Athens String Quartet is very particular and “kaleidoscopical”; it includes: Gero-Dimos of Pavlos Carrer, in Nikos Skalkotas’ transcription for string quartet, La Folia (variations for string quartet) of Simos Papanas, Five Greek dances for string quartet of Nikos Skalkotas (Epirotikos, Kretikos, Tsamikos, Arkadikos and Kleftikos) and Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in C major, opus 59.
The organization of this concert on this occasion and under these conditions, gives great honor and pleasure to the whole Athens State Orchestra.
Athens String Quartet was created in 2010 and is composed by remarkable musicians of the Athens State Orchestra, Apollo Grammatikopoulos (violin), Panayiotis Tziotis (violin), Paris Anastasiadis (viola) and Isidoros Sideris (cello).
Concert organized by the Hellenic Embassy in Bucharest and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Romania

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Land and Sea

The Voice of Oak expresses the fear man feels when he realizes the limited caracter of his own nature and the ephemere of life. Together with the Voice of Oak, the orchestra interprets, for the first time as an autonomous creation, the music Giorgos Kouroupos composed for Odyssey, John Neumeir's  ballet, presented in the Athens Concert Hall (1995), in the Hambourg State Opera (1995-96), in the Royal Theater of Copenhague (2002) and in other venues. 

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Gaetano Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

It has been 15 years since Lucia di Lammermoor was last staged in Athens (2002, Athens Concert Hall). In honour of the ‘eternal Diva’, a select cast of Greek musicians and the Athens State Orchestra under the direction of Lukas Karytinos attempt at giving a new reading of Lucia di Lammermoor, one of the most demanding – vocally and in terms of performance – Bel canto operas.

Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano
Based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel “The Bride of Lammermoor”

Concertante
With Greek surtitles

Artistic supervisor: Aris Christofellis
Musical preparation: Thanassis Apostolopoulos

Athens State Orchestra
Conductor: Lukas Karytinos

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Christmas Concert I

The dynamic Nikos Haliassas will be conducting this year’s Christmas concert, which will feature atmospheric and melodiously tranquil music by German composers. Mellifluous readings from classic German Christmas tales are guaranteed to awaken the spirit of Christmas within us, while Heinrik Albrecht’s highly evocative music breathes new life into Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

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