The Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands
with the cultural organization International Action Art
present
Megaron Athens Concert Hall
the Oratorio “The Song of the Nations”by Panagiotis
Karousos
dedicated to
the United Nations
Oratorio: " Song of the Nations: The United
Nations - Hope of Mankind"
Music Library of Greece Of The Friends Of Music
Society
at the Athens Concert Hall - Megaro
Mousikis
WEDNESDAY APRIL 26,
2023 | TIME 20:00 PM
Panagiotis
Karousos works: Oratorio
"Song of the Nations" and excerpts from the operas, “Alexander
the Great” – “Prometheus Bound” – “Homer's Iliad” – “Trachiniae-Olympic Flame”
OLGA SKEKLIOU, IRINI
KONSTA, REA VOUDOURI, PANAGIOTIS DIPLAROS,
GIANNIS DARIOS, BASILIKI
PARASKEVOPOULOU, NIKI ZACHAROPOULOU,
ARGYRIS KOTONIKOLAOU,
NINA GIATRA, FOTEINI PAPACHRISTOU,
DIMITRIS KOTTARIDIS (CELLO),
CHRISTIANA MANOU (PIANO)
COORDINATOR: REA VOUDOURI
(SOPRANO)
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:
PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS (COMPOSER)
PATRICK MAISONNAVE,
AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE IN GREECE
IOANNIS MARONITIS, PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB FOR
UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS
PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS
Panagiotis
Karousos is a renowned Greek-Canadian composer who brings to his music the
philosophy and spiritualism of the Greek classics. He studies music at the
University of Montreal and McGill University. Although he did not complete his
studies he was one of the most active composers of his generation. 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 (2008)
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, and in Buenos Aires (Sala
Borges de la Biblioteca Nacional de Argentina 2009). The opera Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus) presented in Place des Arts, Montreal Canada two
seasons 1994 in Modern Greek and 1996 in the French translation of Professor
Jacques Bouchard (director of Neo-Hellenic studies at the University of
Montreal) with Canadian bass Joseph Rouleau, mezzo Annamaria Popescu, pianist
Mme Claudette Denys, sopranos Leila Chalfoun, Chantal Parent, etc. The opera
presented in Los Angeles at Beverly Hills City Hall 1998, in New York with the
Astoria Symphony and soloists, and in Washington DC with The District of
Columbia Symphony Orchestra with maestro Grant Gilman in 2008.
P.
Karousos returned to Greece in 2012 and in 2013 he did major presentations of
the opera Prometheus Bound in Ancient Greek Theaters (Epidaurus, Messina, Sikyon,
Ancient Agora), and the National Archeological Meseum of Greece. In 2014
Prometheus presented with bass Vasilis Asimakopoulos in the United Nations
Headquarters in Manhattan and in Mamie Fay auditorium in Queens, New York under
the auspices of the Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands.
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, Sofia National Opera and Ballet,
getting rave reviews. In 2016 the opera “Trachiniae – Olympic Flame” (Sophocles) was the first Greek opera
presented at Lincoln Center of NY under the direction of conductor Jestin
Pieper, following an open-air presentation in the Summer Festival of Astoria
(Athens Square Park Summer Festival 2016) with Morten Kjøsnes, Stella
Papatheodorou, Demetrios Tsinopoulos, Elisabeth Shoup, Kofi Hayford, Viktoriya
Koreneva, Ola Rafalo, and presented by Billy and Despina Chrissochos. His Liederabend and chamber music was
presented in Berlin with pianist Theodosia Ntokou and musicians from Berliner
Camerata with impressed reviews in 2015, and in 2016 at The Royal College of
Music in London. In 2019 his Oratorio:
"Song of the Nations: The United Nations - Hope of Mankind" was
presented with soloists: Irini Konsta,
soprano and Vasilis Asimakopoulos, bass, the Music Educators' Choir of Attiki
“Choremus” and the Graduates’ Choir of the Music High School of Pallini, and
the Hellenic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Faidra
Giannelou, in Athens and Corinth, Greece. In 2021 P. Karousos presented a
numerous of concerts for the 200 years of Independents of Greece events
(1821-2021) of his new works by set to music great poets’ poems.
The
opera Prometheus Bound also did many
presentations in the Secondary Education Schools with a Seminar in a program
approved by the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs of Greece
and the Institute of Educational Policy (I.E.P.).The purpose of the program is
to understand the students the connection of the opera with the ancient Greek
tragedy through the Prosody.
The
Greek National Radio Television did many profiles on him and broadcasted live
his works with some of the most talented artists of opera and classical music.
