Cultural Events in Heraklio

Updated: 2004-06-28 15:28

The celebrations for the Olympic Football Tournament at the city of Heraklio will culminate in major cultural events highlighting the unique continuity of Cretan culture and the historical importance of the island as a bridge between cultures in the south-east Mediterranean, at the junction of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The programme of cultural events was presented by the cultural adviser to ATHENS 2004, Thanos Mikroutsikos.

More than 300 artists from Crete and abroad will be appearing in an impressive programme of fourteen events with the collective title ‘Crete – Crossroads of Music’. The events will be held on 7, 9 and 11 August and will be in eight different locations in the adjacent municipalities of Heraklio, Nea Alikarnassos, Gazi, and Kazantzakis.

There are three sections:

Section 1: Cretan music past and the present

a) Grand Cretan hooley. This will bring together artists and instrumental folk groups from all over the island, in collaboration with the Cretan Artists Association. There will be events at Nea Alikarnassos (Agiou Nikolaou Square) on 7 August, at Heraklio (Eleftherias Square) on 9 August, and at Gazi (Town Hall Square) on 11 August.

b) The Erotokritos. This will be a full performance to music of the classic epic poem by Kornaros. The directors are Zacharias Spyridakis (music) and Mitsos Stavrakakis (text). The performers are: Zacharias Spyridakis, Kyriakos Stavranoudakis, Michalis Stavrakakis, Giannis Robogiannakis, Vasilis Stavrakakis, Spyridoula Toutoudaki, Pedram Khavar-Zamini, Stelios Petrakis, Giorgos Angelogianniakis, and Alexandros Papadakis. This once-in-a-lifetime concert will be on 7 August at Heraklio (Agias Aikaterinis Square).

c) ‘What’s on offer in Cretan music today?’. This concert will spotlight the modern, creative aspect of Crete- how performers manage to create a ‘new’ Cretan sound based on the old tradition. Among the artists are Psaradonis, Giannis Papatzanis, Stelios Petrakis, Dimitris Sgouros, and Hainides. This concert will also be at Heraklio (Agias Aikaterinis Square).

Section 2: Encounters between Crete’s music and other cultures

a) ‘Iris’. This event brings together musicians from India, Iran, and Greece. Performers include Ross Daly, Kelly Thoma, Stelios Petrakis, Periklis Papapetropoulos, Spyridoula Baka, Alexandros Arkadopoulos, Haris Lambrakis, and Giorgis Xylouris. The concert will take place at the Labyrinth Music Workshop, in the Kazantzakis muncipality, on 7 August.

b) Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan. Here itinerant singers of Rajasthan in faraway India join Cretan musicians and improvisers of mantinada. The resemblance between two cultures so far apart geographically is striking. What these two traditions have in common is the importance of rhythm, making up texts on the spur of the moment, and a Dionysiac spirit- an ideal recipe for a concert full of vim and surprises, at Heraklio (Agias Aikaterinis Square) on 9 August.

c) The Labyrinth Workshop joins Huun-Huur-Tu from Tuva and the Chemirani trio to present a special show in which the sound of Crete blends with the sound of Central Asia and Iran. In a unique mixture, the weird voices from the Tuva steppe blend with the rizitiko of singer Giorgos Xylouris, the elaborate complexity of the Chemirani trio’s percussion, and the acoustic variety of Labyrinth. This concert is at the Kazantzakis Open-Air Theatre on 9 August.

Section 3: Crete, cultural crossroads: music from East, West, North and South

a) Flamenco meets Arabic tradition, as two top groups join forces: the Adel Salameh trio from Palestine and Eduardo Niebla from Spain. This concert is at the Hatzidakis Amphitheatre on 7 August.

b) Medieval and Renaissance Music from the other end of the Mediterranean. Performers: Jordi Savall, Spanish researcher and performer of Spanish and European music, and his group of seven, Hesperion. This concert is at the Kazantzakis Open-Air Theatre on 7 August.

c) Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz and Mashmoud Shams: the two most important virtuosi of Afghan music today present a programme of traditional folk music at the Hatzidakis Amphitheatre on 9 August.

d) Four famous musicians from Azerbaijan, led by Habil Aliev, present a special programme of folk music from their country at the Hatzidakis Amphitheatre on 11 August.

e) Ante portas - Byzantine music meets modern music. The ten musicians of Vasilis Rakopoulos’ group join Nikos Xydakis, Giorgos Chatzichronoglou, Haik Yazdijan and a group of eight musicians from the Ionian University under the direction of Miranda Kaldi. Part I is a narrative in music entitled ‘O Choros ton Pyrson’ (Dance of the Torches), a piece inspired by the dances at the hippodrome in Byzantine times, with gradual stepping up of dynamic levels as the dance intensifies. Part II is more of an improvisation– a journey through the music from different countries, ending with the West joining in the Byzantine melody as a string quartet plays away music from different cultures. It has music from V. Rakopoulos’ Aianon, Roxane and Zeus Ammon; two Byzantine hymns in praise of a sound mind in a sound body; narratives and choruses from Greek tragedy (Aeschylus, Euripides) and poems by Sappho, set to new music by N. Xydakis; and Elytis adaptation of the Erotocritos. The concert will take place at the Kazantzakis Open-Air Theatre.

The programme ends with a Grand Procession and Concert in the streets of Heraklio on 11 August, featuring the 100 Bagpipes from Bulgaria. Like much of Balkan folk music Bulgarian music has hectic, complex rhythms and beautiful slow melodies. As they wander across the city playing their pipes, the Bulgarian musicians will fill Heraklio with joyful festive sounds.

A large team of experts in various different fields are working feverishly to organise and present these cultural events to perfection, always in collaboration with OCOG ATHENS 2004 Culture and Public Relations Department, and with the municipalities of Heraklio, Nea Alikarnassos, Gazi and other local authorities.

Crete, and Heraklio in particular, will be the scene of the Greeting Ceremony for the Olympic flame on 9 July. The Great Isle will host the Flame at its first stopover back in Greece as it returns from the long trip across the five continents that started on 2 June.

The celebrations will include a grand concert by Haris Alexiou with her twelve-piece backing group at Heraklio (Eleftherias Square), stopover for the Olympic flame, immediately after the Greeting Ceremony.