CLUB FOR UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS AWARDING OF THE PRIZE «DIMITRI MITROPOULOS» TO RENOWNED COMPOSER & CONDUCTOR ELEFTHERIOS KALKANIS

CLUB FOR UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS

AWARDING OF THE PRIZE «DIMITRI MITROPOULOS»

TO RENOWNED COMPOSER & CONDUCTOR

ELEFTHERIOS KALKANIS  

National Historical Museum of Greece

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE OF GREECE

WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY 2016 12PM

13, Stadiou Street, (Kolokotroni Square), Athens

Adagio & Cantata “For the Lost Species” by Eleftherios Kalkanis

“Prometheus Bound” & “Olympic Flame” by Panagiotis Karousos

Featuring Soloists:

Vanessa Kalkanis, soprano 

Vassilis Asimakopoulos, bass 

Irene Konsta, soprano

HELLENIC ORCHESTRA AND SOLOISTS 

CONDUCTED BY ELEFTHERIOS KALKANIS

Guest of Honour: Mrs Marianna Vardinoyannis, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Greetings: Mr. Ioannis Maronitis, President of the Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands and Member of the Executive Council of the World Federation of Clubs, Associations and Centres of UNESCO (WFUCA) for Europe and North America.

Presentation: Panagiotis Karousos, composer and director for the Department of Opera and Classical Music for the UNESCO Club of the Department of Piraeus & Islands.

Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896 – 1960), was a Greek conductor, pianist, and composer. He received international fame both as a major conductor and composer of the 20th century. Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis (John) and Angelikē (Angelica) Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods shop at 15, St. Mark Street, in downtown Athens. He was musically precocious, demonstrating his abilities at an early age. From the ages of eleven to fourteen, when Mitropoulos was in secondary school, he would host and preside over informal musical gatherings at his house every Saturday afternoon. His earliest acknowledged composition – a sonata for violin and piano, now lost – dates from this period.
He studied music at the Athens Conservatoire as well as in Brussels and Berlin, with Ferruccio Busoni among his teachers. From 1921 to 1925 he assisted Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera and then took a number of posts in Greece. At a 1930 concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, he played the solo part of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 and conducted the orchestra from the keyboard, becoming one of the first to do so. In addition to his orchestral career, Mitropoulos was an equally important force in the operatic repertoire. He conducted opera extensively in Italy and from 1954 until his death in 1960 was the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, although the Met did not officially use that title at the time. His musically incisive and dramatically vivid performances of Puccini, Verdi, Richard Strauss and others remain models of the opera conductor's art. The Met's extensive archive of recorded broadcasts preserves many of these fine performances.
He died in Milan, Italy at the age of 64 of heart failure, while rehearsing Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony. A recording exists of the performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony given by Mitropoulos with the Cologne Radio Symphony on 31 October 1960, just two days before his death.

Maestro Eleftherios Kalkanis was born in Athens, Greece. With full scholarship from the Piraeus Conservatory, he earned six Diplomas in: Solo Violoncello, Harmony, Counterpoint, Orchestration, Fugue and Composition with honours. He completed his studies in professional Symphony and Choral Conducting at the University of Indianapolis, acquiring the academic titles Bachelor of arts and Master of arts.In June 2007 he arranged for the Boston Pops Orchestra at the Pops Goes Hellenic Concert.
As a Symphony Orchestra Director, he has conducted operas, operettas, masses, oratoriums, and major works for Symphony Orchestra from the international repertory in Greece and abroad.
He has composed scores for symphony orchestras, electronic music, as well as operas, concertos, chamber music works.
Since 1995 has been the Artistic Director of the Municipal Conservatory of Agia Varvara. Since 2001 till 2003 he was Artistic Director of the Municipal Conservatory of Glyfada where he also formed the Chamber Orchestra of Glyfada. He taught from 2000 to 2005 at the following faculties: Conducting, Composition, Orchestration and Music Analysis at the University of Indianapolis Athens. From January 1996 until April 2003 he was Artistic Director of the 18 Music Ensembles of the Athens Municipality where he still is the principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra, giving numerous concerts throughout the world. He was honored by the “Hellenic Writers Union” ,Center of European Studies «Ioannis Kapodistrias», The Great Nation School, the Spanish Embassy, the Greek Communities of Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, etc., for his contribution in the spreading and development of Symphonic and Choral Music as a Conductor, Professor and Composer. For the same reason he was also honoured by the Church of Greece and archbishop Christodoulos. Maestro Kalkanis, in 2003 he was honored by the City council of the municipality of Athens with the Medal of The City Of Athens.

Panagiotis Karousos is a renowned Greek-Canadian composer who brings to his music the philosophy and spiritualism of the Greek classics. He did many concerts in Canada and USA with his Symphony No.1 “Liberty”, and Symphony No.2 “Olympic” with Astoria Symphony, the FACE Symphony Orchestra, the OSJL-L Symphony Orchestra and the Monteregie Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestros Silas Nathaniel Huff, Andre Gauthier, Theodora Stathopoulos and Luc Chaput. The Piano Concerto was presented with pianist Nathalie Joncas under UNESCO auspices in the Montreal Popular Concerts series in Montreal’s Maurice Richard Arena to an audience of 5000 people. The Olympic Flame choir was presented with the Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of Gunst wat'n Kunst at Hague, Holland, with maestro R. Pylarinos. The opera Alexander the Great presented in Montreal at the Montreal Notre Dame Basilica, in Chicago Illinois conducted by David Stech, in North Carolina Theatre under the direction of Grant Gilman, and in Toronto at P.C. Ho Theater Cultural Center of Toronto with the Sneak Peak Symphony Orchestra of Toronto University and soloists under the direction of maestro Victor Cheng. The opera Prometheus represented in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC. From 2013 he did major presentations of Prometheus in Ancient Greek Theaters (Epidaurus, Messina, Ancient Agora), and the National Archeological Meseum of Greece. In 2014 Prometheus presented with bass Vasilis Asimakopoulos in the United Nations and in Mamie Fay auditorium of New York under the auspices of UNESCO. His Symphony No.4 “Earth” premiered with City of Athens Symphony Orchestra with maestro Eleftherios Kalkanis.