Orford Academy 2022

Mid America Productions is planning a performance of "Sepulcher of Life" for soprano, Arabic/blues singer, choir and orchestra on Easter Day, April 9, 2023 @8:00 PM. The final scheduling depends on how many choral singers will volunteer to participate in the performance. If you are interested in participating and for more information about travel, rehearsals and cost, please contact our conductor, Jean-Louis Bleau at jbleau@mtroyal.ca. We hope to see you there.

On Sunday, May 29, 8:30 pm (EET+2 time zone) composers Norbert Palej and Christos Hatzis will be hosted by pianist Ariadni Dimitriou as the principal composers in a concert of our music at the Municipal Conservatory of Larisa, (Δημοτικό Ωδείο Λάρισας). The first half of the program will be a longer presentation of Hatzis's, followed by the three pieces of the previous night's concert performed by Beverley Johnston (“Eris”, “Ser con É I, II” and “Axion Esti”) and two compositions by the same composers, Hatzis's “Old Photographs” for piano trio and Palej’s “Return from the Stars”. The performers: Αριάδνη Δημητρίου, piano, Δημήτρης Καραμανώλης, violin, Μιλτιάδης Κασσάρας, violoncello and Norbert Palej, synthesizer. Admission is free for this concert.

On Saturday, May 28, 8 pm (EET+2 time zone), composers Norbert Palej and Christos Hatzis will be presenting their music, (including THREE world premieres!) at the Porphyrogenion Hall located in the picturesque seaside town of Agria (Volos, Greece). A brief introduction of our work by each of the composers will be followed by a concert of some amazing musicians: From Canada, internationally renowned percussionist Beverley Johnston performing Hatzis's “Eris” for vibraphone and playback audio, and Palejt’s “Ser con É I, II” for vibraphone and voice (both delivered by Bev), plus “Axion Esti”, a short composition for στάμνα (udu drum), voice and playback audio by Greek composer (and Agria resident) Γιώργος Κοντογιώργος. After intermission, a trio of Athens music royalty, consisting of violinist Δημήτρης Σέμσης (concertmaster of the Athens State Orchestra), horn virtuoso Κώστας Σίσκος (principal French horn of the ASO) and pianist Gulya Tulyaganova will give the world premieres of Palej’s “Per somnum” and Hatzis's “Eden” («Εδέμ»). (Both of these trios are composed for and dedicated to Κώστας Σίσκος.) Closing the program will be the world premiere of Hatzis's “Apostycha Mystica” («Απόστιχα Μυστικά) on a poem by Greek poet and Nobel laureate Odysseus Elytis (Οδυσσέας Ελύτης), composed for and sung by Byzantine cantor Βασίλης Αγροκώστας accompanied by a chamber choir under the direction of Νίκος Χιώτογλου. It should be a great concert, not to be missed. To secure (free of charge) seats please contact 6972085291 (Κ.Πορφυρογένη) and 6973793901 (Απ. Αποστολάκης). Seats are going very fast. It is expected that the hall will fill out completely. For those that cannot attend, the concert will be broadcast online at https://youtu.be/mgrw4vAwM8c and https://youtu.be/xablHpsQffo

Today, Thursday, May 26, 6-8 pm (EET+2 time zone), Christos Hatzis will give an online lecture for the 15th Festival of Audiovisual Arts at the Ionian University in Corfu, titled "Η πνευματική και φιλοσοφική μου τοποθέτηση πάνω στα θέματα μουσικής σύνθεσης και ζωής" (“My spiritual and philosophical stance on music and life”). He will be delivering the lecture mostly in Greek, but his PowerPoint presentation will be bilingual (English and Greek). Hatzis's lecture will center on what he have learned from the philosophers Pythagoras, Plato, and Plotinus, his studies on the qualitative nature of numbers, not just the quantitative, how all the above have been distilled in his concept of “Harmonia” in the late 1970’s, and how the latter has indelibly altered his view of Everything . . . “visible and invisible”. You can watch the livestream at https://avarts.ionio.gr/stream/ Prof. Hatzis is grateful to Prof. Renata Dalianoudi of Ionian University for inviting him and incorporating this lecture in the curriculum of her class “AUD 621—Music Theory and Analysis”.