In an effort to assess the spectrum of lament in Greece, this seminar considers musicological, cultural and social issues in Greek popular music, paying due attention to Theodorakis‘ work and his contribution into the shaping of the Greek art-folk song. Some well-known examples, varying from rebetiko songs to poetry set to music are presented through their stylistic and formal features, the differences in their morphological structures and their social and cultural influences. Coinciding with Theodorakis year, as declared by the Greek Ministry of Culture, this seminar also addresses questions of aesthetics and traces the dissemination of the Greek dirge beyond the country through its texts’ translations, recordings’ circulation, concerts, arrangements and new instrumentations, which seem to acquire a metacultural presence that brings these culturally specific expressions of grief before a broader listenership and transforms them into a universal human experience of sorrow and empathy.

BIO
Dr. Maria Athanasiou is a Lecturer at Newcastle University and a Researcher at Durham University. Her award-winning work focuses on pedagogical methodologies and assessment across the educational board, popular music performance and interpretation as well as activism, social entrepreneurship and digital business in the creative industries and beyond. She holds a Ph.D. by research in Musicology and has been recently among the Newcastle University Alumni Achievement Awards (2021), the Music and Drama Education Awards (finalist, 2023) and the SHE Inspires Awards (finalist, 2023 and 2024). She is a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Event Details:
When: Thursday 27 March 2025, 7pm (8am UK time, 10am Athens time)
Speaker: Dr Maria Athanasiou
Seminar: Theodorakis and the Greek art-folk song
Where: Online – Facebook/Youtube
Language: English