Calendar 2025
The year 2025 is being celebrated as a tribute to Mikis Theodorakis, marking 100 years since the birth of the last Renaissance Greek. Stegi VITZENSOS KORNAROS is participating in the celebration with this calendar, highlighting the common element with the Renaissance Kornaros, who were both scholars and folk artists who taught and entertained generations.
Mikis was a unique personality who brought culture and politics together in a flourishing marriage. We selected 12 of his songs in an attempt to provide a basic overview of his enormous body of work.
We have included in this collection “Epitaph,” which marked a turning point in the musical history of Greece, as it brought great poetry, in this case by Ritsos, to the lips of the people. The following selections also belong to this category: “Arnisi” (Denial) by Giorgos Seferis, “Axion Esti” (It Is Worthy) by Odysseas Elytis, “Canto General” by Pablo Neruda, the song “Of the Wind and the Praised One” from Federico García Lorca’s “Romancero Gitano,” “The Train Leaves at Eight” by Manos Eleftheriou, “If You Remember My Dream” by Nikos Gatsos, and “Beautiful City” by his brother, Yannis Theodorakis.
Three songs connect the Holocaust with the Irish struggle and resistance to the Greek junta. These are “Asma Asmaton” from “Mauthausen” by Iakovos Kambanellis, “Gelasto Paidi” from “Enas Omiros” by Brendan Behan, and “Katastasi Poliorkias” by Rena Hatzidakis.
The collection closes with the emblematic song for social reconciliation, “The Song of the Dead Brother,” with which Mikis attempts to heal the wounds of the civil war. On the inside cover, we included the emblematic “Zorba,” in which Mikis transformed the Cretan syrtos into the now universal Syrtaki. The specific performances we chose underscore Mikis’s universality.