Hours are from 3 to 10 p.m. Friday; noon to 10 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.

The church sponsors two Greek festivals each year, explained Rev. Steve Denas. The one beginning Friday will be indoors, he said, at the community center across the street from the church at 401 12th St.

Festival admission is free, but the church charges for dinner and la carte items. The food will all be made on-site, said the Rev. Denas, and will include gyros and souvlakia, which is shish kebab made with pork or lamb. Salads and desserts also will be available. Beverages will include beer, wine and Greek coffee.

Rev. Denas said the festival serves two purposes: to welcome the community in to experience Greek culture and to raise money for the church.

Monastic nuns from Saxonburg, Pa., are expected to display religious icons and artifacts, he said.

Youth dancers will perform traditional dances at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. Friday; 4:30, 6 and 7 p.m. Saturday; and 3:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

(Source: Vindy.com)

Five sold-out performances of Panos Kiamos were held in North America (Atlantic City, Chicago, Connecticut, Toronto and Montreal) and every location of Panos Kiamos’ performances was packed with many fans.

Greeks in North America had the opportunity to meet Panos Kiamos and converse with him during an event organized by the GMV (main sponsor of Kiamos’ concerts) and Jimmy Panagiotou, who contributed to the whole organization of the concerts.

George Katerinis from Greek Music Live company, that has dedicated itself to bringing the best international Greek performers to the United States and Canada, stated: “Only a few artists show such an interest in their audience and the quality of their concerts. Panos Kiamos is one of them and thus local media supported him. I want to thank Panos Kiamos for making all Greeks in America celebrate his tour altogether”.

Born in Brussels in 1985 to a Greek mother and a Japanese father, Mr. Inui won the 2008 European Young Concert Artists (YCA) Auditions in Leipzig at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi. His music combines strength, energy, and virtuosity with sensitivity in his playing as an emerging international soloist and chamber musician. For this year he is expected to tour Belgium with his piano trio Carle Van Neste; and appear in concert in Germany, Belgium, and Holland.

Mr. Inui performs as a soloist with the Westmoreland (PA) and Bryan (TN) symphonies in the US, the Chamber Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, and plays the Beethoven Concerto on tour with the Braunschweiger Staatsorchester in Germany. As the 2011 Gina Bachauer Competition Prize Winner in Athens, Mr. Inui will appear in concerts in Greece and Spain.

He has also appeared in Japan at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and Casals Hall, and in Europe as concerto soloist with prestigious orchestras including the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège in Belgium and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Thessaloniki, Greece. A favorite of pianist Martha Argerich, Mr. Inui has performed at her festivals in Buenos Aires and Llao Llao in Argentina.

Vassilis Varvaresos, from Thessaloniki (1983), is a favored performer with both audiences and the press. After one recital appearance, The Buffalo News reported that “Loud applause and shouts of praise filled the air”, and on another occasion The Washington Post called him “A young master on the rise, displaying enormous technical resources, commanding power and musicianship”.

He has toured extensively across the U.S. in recitals, while his performances in his native Greece include appearances in Megaro Hall in Athens and the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki. He has performed numerous times on Greek State Television, as well as on television in Belgrade and Sofia.

Mr. Varvaresos has represented Greece in a special “EuroConcert” at the Museum of Modern Art in Helsinki, at the Greek Embassy in Milan, and in a performance for the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.  He has also performed in Austria, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. He won the First Prize at the 1998 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions at the age of 14, the youngest pianist ever to win the Auditions.

The program at the Morgan Library and Museum will feature works by Schubert, Franck, Part, and Paganini.
Tickets cost $15, and can be obtained by calling YCA at (212) 307-6656 or by going online on www.yca.org/tickets.
Members of the Morgan Library & Museum can purchase their tickets for $10. All tickets include museum admission.

Young Concert Artists (YCA) was founded by Susan Wadsworth in 1961 as a professional non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and launching the careers of exceptional but unknown young musicians from all over the world.

Described by The New York Times as a composer whose “music speaks simply, often combining Greek modes… with an attractive quality of ritual mystery,”  Constantinides has written over 250 compositions, several of which have been recorded for Centaur records and performed throughout the US, Europe and Asia by ensembles including the American Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Athens State Orchestra and China’s Shenzhen Symphony, among others.

Currently Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University – as well as head of Composition and Music Director of the Louisiana Sinfonietta – Constantinides brings along an array of superb faculty soloists from LSU, including pianist Michael Gurt, violinist Yova Milanova, saxophonist Griffin Campbell, percussionist Brett William Dietz, along with the LSU Percussion Group, Hamiruge.

Himself a violinist with the State Orchestra of Athens in Greece for over 10 years, as well as with the Indianapolis and Baton Rouge Symphonies, Constantinides premiered his Patterns for Violin and Piano (1989 and 2003), here performed by Yova Milanova along with the lyrical Sonata for Solo Violin No 1 (1968). Milanova is joined by Griffin Campbell on saxophone, and pianist Michael Gurt for Trio No. 3 (1998), based on a folk-like modal tune that highlights the Greek heritage of the composer.

Campbell also performs two solo works: the Zodiac-themed Celestial Musings for Alto Saxophone Alone (2010) and Transformations for Saxophone Alone (1990), inspired by events from the composer’s youth, heard here in its New York premiere. Campbell is joined by percussionist Brett William Dietz for the tone poem, Legend II for Alto Saxophone and Percussion (1988-1993).

Michael Gurt performs the charming Suite for a Young Man for Solo Piano (1980), which takes a journey through adolescence (“Proud and Solemn – First Kiss – Beginning Dancing”), illness (“Clusteritis”), and the elaborate and joyful “Cotillion”. Closing the varied program, the Hamiruge ensemble (Chris Hoefer, Daniel Heagney, Samuel Trevathan) performs the Percussion Quartet (2007), which combines twelve-tone in style and conception, colorful percussion effects, and Greek modal dance tunes.

Now in its 5th season, DCINY offers spectacular opportunities to emerging and established artists, bringing them to New York’s legendary venues. Recently, the Distinguished Concerts Artist Series has featured baritone Thomas Florio, composer David Templeton, and Diandian Wu, performing on piano and traditional Chinese instruments.

Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org or 212-247-7800 or in person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.

Mrs. Pappas (40) is a nuclear pharmacist with a passion for mountain climbing. Her most recent achievement was climbing Mount Everest on May 13, 2011.

With this Award, Pappas is being recognized for her unique achievements and performance, while her climbing agenda does not stop at Everest.

Having already climbed Mount Kilimajaro in Africa, Elbrus in eastern Europe,Vinson in Antarctica, Denali in Alaska and Aconcagua in South America, her next trip is to Australia for the Carstensz Pyramids and then Mont Blank in France.

Pappas began climbing in 2006 and aims at conquering the tops of the highest mountains of the world.

The screenings will take place at the University’s Angell Auditorium A on February 4th and 5th at 3:00pm.

The Greek-American director started filming in the late 1940s. Using unique forms of camera work and abstract narratives, he created ravishing imagery and complex patterns of what he termed “thought-images,” and soon became a major figure in American Independent cinema. In the 1960s he moved to Greece, where he started Temenos, an annual 4-day cinematic pilgrimage near Epidaurus.

The programme is in honour of the 2012 Temenos event in Lyssarea this summer. Markopoulos’ and Beavers’ films have been shown in a number of venues including the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, and The Tate Gallery in London.

(Sources: greeknewsagenda.gr/www.lsa.umich.edu)

She originally performed and recorded these songs to bring attention to the daily struggles of people living with AIDS. The concerts are presented in conjunction with the MCA exhibition “This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s”. Galás performs Thursday, February 23, and Saturday, February 25, 2012 at the MCA Stage.

The new works focus on illness and death and include topics based on poems by various writers, such as a death poem recited at actress Marlene Dietrich’s funeral, a man and a woman walking through a cancer ward, a man dragging his dead best friend through Paris, and an Italian poet’s suicide note.

Galás is known for her politically charged works. She also incorporates influences from traditional Greek and Middle Eastern vocal techniques. Her cult status spans more than three decades and she was last presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007 when she performed two concert programs, “Songs of Exile” and “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty”.

Galás was raised in southern California and has lived in New York City since 1989. From an early age, she studied classical music, jazz music and voice. She played in her father’s New Orleans-style jazz band, and performed solo piano with the San Diego Symphony at the age of 14. In 1979, she performed at the Festival d’Avignon in France as the lead in Globokar’s opera Un Jour comme un autre, based on the arrest and torture of a Turkish woman for alleged treason. Since then, Galás’ work has attacked various organizations for their indifference to social injustices, including challenging the Roman Catholic Church about its stance on AIDS at a live recording of her 1991 album Plague Mass at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. Other albums include The Masque of the Red Death (1989), Malediction and Prayer (1998), and La Serpenta Canta (2004). She has collaborated with artists from around the globe and from various genres, including avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

Events:

Diamanda Galás “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” takes place Thursday, February 23, and Saturday, February 25, at 7:30 pm at the MCA Stage, 220 East Chicago Avenue. Tickets are $35 and a limited quantity of $10 student tickets is available. The MCA Box Office is at 312.397.4010 or www.mcachicago.org. One free museum admission is granted with an MCA Stage ticket stub, valid up to seven days after the performance.

Schrei 27 Film Screening takes place on Friday, February 24 and Sunday, February 26, 1-4 pm, at the MCA Theater.
Made by Davide Pepe and Diamanda Galás, a 27 min. film on continuous loop will be screened. Intense vocal performances are edited with moments of silence intended to reflect the state of a patient subjected to torture through chemical or mechanical manipulation of the brain. There is a high density of the atypical speech and vocal signal processing that Galás has been researching since 1979.

His collection is demi couture for Fall/Winter 2012, and its name is ‘New Look New York’. In the terms οf exporting Greek Fashion Globally, Athens Xclusive Designers Week gives the opportunity to Greek Designers to present their work abroad.

Nolcha is an award winning creative events agency focusing on fashion, beauty, consumer and lifestyle brands.

Based in New York City, Nolcha has produced events throughout the USA and UK providing highly strategic and innovative programs for over 150 established and new brands, including Coca-Cola, American Airlines, Procter & Gamble, Vitabath, Don Q Rums and 100+ independent fashion designers among others.

Nolcha prides itself on providing brands with ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, industry connections and an edgy approach to event production.

The company has a strong brand presence in the independent fashion industry and receives positive recognition from world-renowned media outlets such as Lucky, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, CBS, Forbes, NBC, ABC, Fox and BBC.

In 1996, a second grandiose exhibition followed entitled “The Glory of Byzantium”, emphasizing the mid-Byzantine era.

This year, the MET will present a new exhibition entitled “Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition” focusing on the transition era from the Byzantine to the Islam world by recording the development of the Southern provinces of the empire in the 7th century AD.

The exhibition will be open from March 14 until July 8 and will be organized around three themes: the secular and religious character of the Byzantine state’s southern provinces in the first half of the seventh century; the continuity of commerce in the region even as the political base was transformed; and the emerging arts of the new Muslim rulers of the region.

According to a MET press release, “Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition” represents the first major museum exhibition to focus on this pivotal era in the history of the eastern Mediterranean. Through some 300 exceptional works of art, the landmark presentation will reveal the artistic and cultural adaptations and innovations that resulted during the initial centuries of contact between these two worlds.

The works are drawn primarily from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Benaki Museum of Athens, and also include many stellar loans from other institutions in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Major support has been provided by Mary and Michael Jaharis, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Hagop Kevorkian Fund. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Founded by Jerry Vile in 2000, the exhibition showcases over 400 pieces of art by over 250 artists from 20 countries and offers an alternative solution to the celebrations of Valentine’s Day.

The exhibition always takes place close to the 14th of February; this year the exhibition will be open from February 10 to 18 at Bert’s Warehouse Theatre. Through painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, video art, performances and screening of movies, sex will be presented to the audience both as a concept and an image.

Christos Tsintsaris from Thessaloniki will present his work “Howard’s Girls on Wednesday Night” at the exhibition. Having graduated from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts (now the College of Fine Arts) the Greek pop-surrealist presents they key features of his most recent work, which combines vivid colors and particularly expressive cartoon figures. With a sense of humor or criticism, Tsintsaris gives his own interpretation and perspective on things, such as the world and sex.

Sarah Klein wrote on the small but significant word of sex (Metrotimes, 2003) that “Sex sells. Sex intrigues. Sex scandalizes. Sex starts some careers and finishes others. Any channel on the television, any URL on the Web: It’s all about sex, sex, sex, sex, sex!”.