As part of the celebrations of the World Music Day, on Wednesday 21.6, audience across Europe will have the opportunity to watch an exciting performance of “Peaux” from the work Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis on ERT2 at 8.30, at Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall (Megaron youtube channel and facebook page, 20:30), at the Athens Conservatoire (Athens Conservatoire youtube Channel, 20:30) and in July on ARTE channel, the largest European channel for culture.
A rare offering from the birthplace of Apollo, the god of music on this important day.
It is worth noting that this is the first time that a work by the pioneering and visionary composer is being presented in Delos. The twelve-minute piece is performed by the internationally acclaimed Greek percussion soloist Dimitris Desyllas and the ensemble “TYΠANA”.
The concert was filmed in front of the iconic lions of Delos, symbolising the deep connection between ancient myths, art and human creativity for the protection of life on the planet.
It took place on 4 June, as part of the 3rd World Meeting of Delos, an initiative of the World Human Forum which is carried out in partnership with the Hellenic Space Center, the National Research Center for Natural Sciences “Demokritos” and Europa Nostra, and in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades. The artistic partners of the event are the Athens Conservatoire and Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall.
The meeting was also attended by the distinguished choreographer Akram Khan, whose work “The Jungle Book reimagined” explores humanity’s relationship with nature and the urgent need to protect it. In his statement he referred that, “Places like Delos, with its ancient ruins, awaken our five senses, our imagination and together with art, invite us to become part of creation.”
Percussion soloist Dimitris Desyllas wrote of his approach to the music piece:
“I look to the past to travel to the future. I feel the Earth as I reach for the sky. I reach for the sky to feel the Earth. I draw on traditions of an entire world and I recognise that through the accuracy of the study I will inhabit the mathematical way of thinking as a means of understanding numbers; numbers that paradoxically through the Dionysian intoxication lead to the Apollonian Light. The Light of Delos.
A journey that leads inevitably – with meaning and structure – to the respect of diversity, of borderless creation, but above all to the universal need to protect the environment that hosts us and teaches us that, as long as there is the becoming, there will be culture, regardless from where it comes and what colour it is.
So I will travel. I will combine my African Congas with my Latin American Bongos, my Turkish Grand Casa with my American Toms and my Arabic Timpanis; all sounds born out of experiencing different landscapes. This way I strive to play for all these places at the same time in the spirit of a cosmos without limits. “
