IOANNIS MARONITIS, ELENI FILINI AND COSTAS VENETSANOS WILL PRESENTS THE SONGS OF FREEDOM BY PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS

 CLUB FOR UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS / INTERNATIONAL ACTION ART

GREECE 1821 – 2021 “We are all one at music concert”

THE SONGS OF FREEDOM BY PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS

PRESENTATION AND RECITATION OF POEMS BY CLUB FOR UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS / INTERNATIONAL ACTION ART

GREECE 1821 – 2021 “We are all one at music concert”

THE SONGS OF FREEDOM BY PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS

PRESENTATION AND RECITATION OF POEMS BY ELENI FILINI AND COSTAS VENETSANOS

The Club for UNESCO of Piraeus & Islands & INTERNATIONAL ACTION ART

“We are all one at music concert”

A Concert with art songs of the internationally renowned Greek-Canadian composer

Panagiotis Karousos under the direction of maestro Andreas Prionas 

ZAPPEION MEGARON | COURTYARD 

TUESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2021 AT 8 PM

Mr Ioannis Maronitis, President of Club for UNESCO of Piraeus & Islands and INTERNATIONAL ACTION ART

Vocals: Erofili Tzanou, Dimitris Kanellos,Valia Tsirgioti, Eugenia Zekeri, Theodoros Birakos, Georgina Antonakaki. Musicians: Andreas Prionas (piano), Giannis Lambrakis (bouzouki), Nikos Tsachtsiris (double bass), Andreas Niakaris (percussion) 

MUSICAL DIRECTION OF THE RENOWN MAESTRO ANDREAS PRIONAS

Costas Venetsanos, Eleni Filini

Poems Set to Music by composer Panagiotis Karousos: The Enchanted Fountain (Costas Krystallis), Remembrance (Dionysios Solomos), Approach (Yiannis Ritsos), Wayfarer (Paul Nirvana), How much I love you (Yannis Vilaras), Τhe child in the river (Georgios Vizyinos), Silence (Kostis Palamas), Parthenon (Kostis Palamas), You the sweet (George Drosinis), Caryatids (Ioannis Polemis), Elevation (Nikiforos Vrettakos), In an old church (Miltiadis Malakasis), In the night club (Napoleon Lapathiotis), Learn the pain (Ioannis Gryparis), My world (Karl Marx), You will pull forward (Manolis Anagnostakis) Flowers of the cliff (Georgios Drosinis), Tomorrow Light (Alekos Panagoulis), Arise Greece (Alexander Pushkin), Maid of Athens (Byron)

Traditional folk dances by regions, a tribute to 1821 (Kalavrita, Lidoriki, etc.)  

Monologue: Despina Mirou: Bouboulina & Kolokotronis 1821, the two heroes of the revolution talk

Maronitis, President of the Club for UNESCO Piraeus & Islands and of the INTERNATIONAL ACTION ART 

Eleni Filini 

Panagiotis Karousos is a renowned Greek-Canadian composer who brings to his music the philosophy and spiritualism of the Greek classics. His Symphony No.1 “Liberty”, was presented in Canada and New York with great success with the Astoria Symphony and maestro Silas Nathaniel Huff. He did many concerts in Canada with his Liberty Symphony, and Symphony No.2 “Olympic” with the FACE Symphony Orchestra, the OSJL-L Symphony Orchestra and the Monteregie Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestros Andre Gauthier, Theodora Stathopoulos and Luc Chaput. The Piano Concerto for Peace 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 Suite Montrealaise was commended from the City of Montreal to mark the Millennium. The Olympic Flame choir was presented with the Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of Gunst wat'n Kunst at Hague, Holland, with maestro Rafael Pylarinos. P. Karousos Violin Concerto was presented in New York, under the direction of maestro Grant Gilman. The opera Alexander the Great presented in Montreal at the Montreal Notre Dame Basilica, in Chicago Illinois with the American Symphony Orchestra of Chicago and conducted by David Stech, in North Carolina Theatre with East Coast Philharmonic and soloists 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. 

Panagiotis Karousos, Eleni Filini 

The opera Prometheus represented in Los Angeles, in New York with the Astoria Symphony and soloists, and in Washington DC with The District of Columbia Symphony Orchestra. In 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 in 2014 with City of Athens Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Eleftherios Kalkanis. In 11 December 2014 he presented in Athens Greece his "Tuba Concerto" dedicated to the International Mountain Day Under the Auspices of United Nations.  The lyric tragedy "Prometheus Bound" is the first Greek popular opera presented internationally and always with great success in areas such as the Sorbonne, Place des Arts in Canada, Epidaurus, UN, getting rave reviews.

Dimitrios Ypsilantis (1793 - August 16, 1832)

 Born in Constantinople, he was a Leader, Fighter, Politician and an important Revolutionary during the time of the Greek War of Independence.

He was a member of the wealthy and prominent Ypsilanti family of Constantinople, who originally hailed from Trapezounta in Pontos. He was the younger brother of Alexandros, who was a leading figure of Filiki Etaireia.

Dimitrios Ypsilantis took part in numerous battles, such as early on in Wallachia, the Battles of Argos, Nafplio and Dervenakia and crucially, the Battle of Petra, which was the final battle of the Greek War of Independence. Where his Army inflicted devastating losses on the Turks and earned the Greeks their decisive victory.

The capitulation of the Turks here, led them to seek a truce.

After the War, Dimitrios Ypsilantis was tasked with organising the various Greek armed groups and factions, into a conventional united Army.

Following the assassination of Ioannis Kapodistrias in 1831, Dimitrios Ypsilantis was appointed a member of the Administrative Committee of Greece in 1832, essentially a leadership group to run Greece.

Dying later the same year, he is remembered as one of the more selfless and unassuming leaders of the Greek Revolution.

Hellenic Patriotism

August 20th, 480BC - The Battle of Thermopylae

 

August 20th, 480BC - The Battle of Thermopylae

The 2,501st anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae. Where the united Greek city-states led by King Leonidas of Sparta, put up a defiant last stand of defence of the homeland.

Thermopylae, was a narrow coastal passage located in Sterea Ellada, the sight of many battles throughout history and the site of the stand by a Greek force numbering according to sources at an absolute maximum of 10,000, against the Persian Army of a minimum 300,000, many sources have far higher figures for the Persian Army.

Xerxes’ army travelled through the Dardanelles and landed in Macedon and Thessaly in Northern Greece, causing destruction and seizing much land, before moving South to attack Thebes, Athens and Sparta.

The outnumbered Greeks defended stoutly for days against Persian attacks, suffering light losses as they imposed heavy casualties on the Persians & holding up their advance South.

Only when the Greeks were betrayed did the battle take a detrimental turn. Ephialtes, a Greek citizen desiring reward, informed Xerxes of a path that went around Thermopylae, thus rendering the Greek defensive line useless in preventing the forward advance of the Persian army.

Xerxes took advantage of this betrayal & sent his army along the path, led by Ephialtes. After reaching the other side, the Persians attacked and destroyed a portion of the Greek army. The majority of the remaining Greek army retreated.

Leonidas, his 300 bodyguards and around 1,000 Boeotians remained behind, they held their ground against the Persians but were defeated by the vast enemy army, many Greeks were killed, including Leonidas.

Despite the Greek defeat, the Battle of Thermopylae has become synonymous with courage and as an example of a relatively few patriots, defending themselves and their homeland, against a tyrannical and numerically superior enemy.

A timeless message for all Greeks.

Μολὼν Λαβέ

Hellenic Patriotism 

Pavlos Kountouriotis (April 9, 1855 - August 22, 1935)

 

Pavlos Kountouriotis (April 9, 1855 - August 22, 1935)

Born on the island of Hydra, he was a Hero of the Balkan Wars (1912-13), Admiral and Chief of the General Staff of the Hellenic Navy and later, President of Greece.

He was descendant from the wealthy ship owning Kountouriotis family, who played a pivotal role at sea during the Greek Revolution of 1821. Pavlos Kountouriotis followed in his family’s seafaring and navy tradition, by enlisting in the Hellenic Navy in 1875.

By the time of the Greco-Turkish War (1897), he had reached the rank of Captain, taking part in several operations, which included landings of Greek re-enforcements on Crete.

At the outbreak of the Balkan Wars (1912-13), he was promoted to Rear Admiral of the Navy and soon after was Chief of Staff of the Navy.

Pavlos Kountouriotis distinguished himself in numerous important naval battles in the Aegean, including 2 decisive victories at the Battles of Elli and Lemnos, which sent the Turks fleeing back up the Dardanelles, denying them control of the Aegean.

The islands of Lesvos, Lemnos, Thasos, Imvros, Tenedos, Psara, Agios Efstratios, Samothrace, Chios were all liberated, while Kountouriotis commanded the landing of the Hellenic Navy at Kavala.

Following victory in the Balkan Wars, Pavlos Kountouriotis was proclaimed Admiral of the Hellenic Navy, a distinction only ever awarded to 2 others, Konstantinos Kanaris & Andreas Miaoulis.

Later, Pavlos Kountouriotis became involved in politics, appointed Minister of the Navy, before becoming President of the Hellenic Republic.

Today, the name Pavlos Kountouriotis is displayed on numerous ships of the Hellenic Navy.

Hellenic Patriotism

O Agios Kosmas o Aitolos (1714 - August 24, 1779)

 O Agios Kosmas o Aitolos (1714 - August 24, 1779)

Born near the town of Thermo in Sterea Ellada, Agios Kosmas was a Greek Monk and one of the most revered Saints of the Greek Orthodox Church.

After studying at Mt Athos and in Constantinople, he returned and within the space of 20 years, he founded over 200 Greek Schools. He urged the subjugated Greeks, to send their children there to learn Greek, specifically Koine Greek, the language of the Church and so they can become educated.

This activity brought him to the attention of the Turks, Jews and Venetians.

Following the Greek Revolution of 1770, which was brutally put down and where the Greeks were betrayed by the Russians, the Turkish authorities began to pursue Agios Kosmas, accusing him of being a "Russian agent".

Agios Kosmas, also got on the wrong side of the Jews, after he transferred the day of business at the local markets in Epirus from Sunday to Saturday, thus causing them loss of income and influence.

In his later years, he would spend much of his time in the Epirus region where on August 24, 1779, he was seized by the Turks and arrested on the charge of once again being a Russian agent. Without a trial, he was executed via hanging in the village of Kolikontasi in Northern Epirus.

Agios Kosmas was officially proclaimed a Saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. His feast day is celebrated on August 24th, the date of his martyrdom.

Northern Epirotes hold Agios Kosmas up as the Patron Saint of their persecuted region, their people and of their struggle.

Hellenic Patriotism

Eleni Gkatzogianni (1907 - August 28, 1948)

 

Eleni Gkatzogianni (1907 - August 28, 1948)

The 28th of August 1948, was the date of one of the many massacres and atrocities, committed by the communists during their despicable insurgency inside Greece following WW2. Sometimes this conflict is known as the “Greek Civil War”.

This particular massacre occurred in the village of Lias, Thesprotia, Epirus. Mother of 5 Eleni Gkatzogianni, was one of the many who fell victim. On trumped up charges, she was sentenced and then executed by a communist firing squad.

Her “crime”, was protecting her children from the παιδομάζωμα. The communist policy of abducting and kidnapping Greek children and sending them off to Communist countries – Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Russia – to be indoctrinated and raised as Anti-Greeks and to become "Good Communists", to return to Greece at a later time, when a new socialist people’s republic of Greece was created.

This was all part of a plan to break Macedonia, Epirus, Thrace, off from the rest of Greece and bring it into a Pan-Yugoslav Communist realm.

Before her execution, Eleni managed to save her 5 children, who escaped to America. One of those children, Nikolaos, known professionally as Nicholas Gage, became a famous Author and Investigative Journalist in the United States. He would as an adult, shine a light on what happened in Greece following WW2.

Nicholas Gage, is known for his best-selling book "Eleni", which was also later turned into a feature film in 1985. Which centred around the communist insurgency in Greece and Gage's return to Greece many years later as an adult, to discover what happened to his mother and to confront her killers.

Hellenic Patriotism 

August 26th, 1821 - Battle of Vasilika

 

August 26th, 1821 - Battle of Vasilika

During the 1st year of the Greek Revolution, Greeks rose up and took up arms in a bid for freedom all over the Greek inhabited lands.

But it would be in the Peloponnese particularly, where Greeks saw early, decisive victories and where early gains were made.

After the suppression of elements of the Greek Revolution up North in Macedonia and Epirus, the Turks turned their attention South to subdue the Greeks in the Peloponnese and sent 8000 men to join up with the other Turks down south.

Upon discovery of the plans, Greek Revolutionaries numbering 2000 or so, organised a force to prevent the advance and confront these Turk re-enforcements.

They squared up to each other in Vasilika, southeast of Lamia in Sterea Ellada.

The Greeks held the Turks back and inflicted over 1000 casualties (both dead and injured) to the Greeks who suffered 40 casualties (dead and injured).

The Greek Victory here was one of the most decisive and important of the entire Greek Revolution, preventing the Turks from entering the Peloponnese and relieving the greatly besieged Turkish forces there.

Billy Chrissochos  

Hellenic Patriotism IMPORTANT DATES

Love Letters To Greece

Ilias Katsos, George Karatzia, Demi Pamboukis and Billy Chrissochos at Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Paul

Pictured: Lieutenant Governor Distr. 6/ President of Delphi 25 Brother Ilias Katsos, AHEPA National Project Chairman Brother George Karatzia, District 6 Governor Brother Demi Pamboukis, Director of Hellenism District 6/Hermes Secretary Brother Billy Chrissochos.

Billy Chrissochos: I am so excited to be part of AHEPA. I am now the Director of Hellenism for District 6 Empire State (all of NY). I take the reins over from Brother Ilias I. Katsos who set up a very high standard for all of us. He is now Lieutenant Governor and President of Delphi 25. I am also secretary for the Hermes 186 Astoria Chapter, which Brother George Zouvelos is president, and we are growing fast with youthful, energetic, business professionals with a love for #Hellenism and our #OrthodoxChurch. Here is some of #AHEPA’s upcoming #charity and #cultural events. Starting with the lecture on September 6th about the Pogrom of the Greeks of Constantinople in 1955.

Pictured is, District 6 Governor Brother Demi Pamboukis, AHEPA National Project Chairman Brother George Karatzia, Secretary Brother Chris Pappis and many others. The Very Rev. Eugene N. Pappas dropped by also. This was a joint meeting with the Daughters of Penelope as well as the Sons and Maids. Contact me if your wish to join our #HermesAstoria Chapter . Greeks as well as Philhellenes are welcomed to join. #AHEPADirectorofHellenism

Billy Chrissochos

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Paul.

AHEPA District 6 Secretary Brother Chris Pappis and Director of Hellenism District 6/Hermes Secretary Brother Billy Chrissochos

Wise words from the great ARISTOTLE!

 

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) numbers among the greatest philosophers of all time. Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is his peer: Aristotle’s works shaped centuries of philosophy from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance, and even today continue to be studied with keen, non-antiquarian interest. A prodigious researcher and writer, Aristotle left a great body of work, perhaps numbering as many as two-hundred treatises, from which approximately thirty-one survive.

His extant writings span a wide range of disciplines, from logic, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, through ethics, political theory, aesthetics and rhetoric, and into such primarily non-philosophical fields as empirical biology, where he excelled at detailed plant and animal observation and description. In all these areas, Aristotle’s theories have provided illumination, met with resistance, sparked debate, and generally stimulated the sustained interest of an abiding readership.



#Greek #AncientGreece #Aristotle #Philosophy #Philosopher #VictorySweetShop

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