"EVMELIA" FESTIVAL

"The music of dreams that comes true"

The International Music Festival “Evmelia” completed its 7th Edition in early October 2019 under great success, always under the organization and economic support of the Porphyrogenis Foundation in Agria-Volos. Dino Mastroyiannis is the inspirer and Artistic Director of Evmelia since its birth, in autumn 2011. Mastroyiannis gave also the name "Evmelia" to this new Festival, an ancient Greek work (ευμέλεια) which means "nice melody"; he also provided to the new Festival its official logo, a beautiful logo that was created in early 2002 by the Greek graphic designer from Volos Apostolos Zissimatos, and which was originally used for the first time by Dino Mastroyiannis in the 2nd Edition of his "Volos International Music Festival" (in spring 2002). The "Evmelia" Festival established itself as one of the most prestigious festivals, not only for the Thessaly region but also for the whole modern Greece.

Evmelia organized within 7 years almost 60 concerts (chamber music concerts, recitals and concerts with orchestras), succeeded a live Internet streaming on a worldwide basis of most of its concerts for the first time in Greece (at least as far as concerns a festival of classical music) with the technical support of the Greek Company “Friktoria”, and/or a VOD (video on demand) broadcasting of all their concerts.

Evmelia screened 5 famous musical documentaries, hosted artists from more than 60 countries from Brazil to Malaysia and from Japan to New Zealand, including some of the biggest names of the international classical musical scene, such as the “King of percussionists”, Brazilian Ney Rosauro. The Evmelia I and II Festivals honored as composers-in-residence two of the most distinguished Greek composers worldwide, John Psathas (based in New Zealand) and Christos Hatzis (based in Canada), who both came in person from abroad and attended the concerts dedicated to them.

Evmelia established a special cycle of concerts named “Pearls of Greek music” exclusively dedicated to Greek composers, and it started in 2013 with a magnificent tribute to the legendary Mikis Theodorakis. It also opened its doors to musical spheres beyond classical music, launching the special series “Late night concerts”, which started in 2013 with a tribute to the jazz music of Claude Bowling.

All the Evmelia’s concerts have been attended by a large and enthusiastic audience of all ages, which was coming with immense pleasure everyday at the Cultural Centre of the Porphyrogenis Foundation, but also by an international audience of at least 10.000 people over the internet from almost every corner of the globe. The Festival has been greeted warmly by internationally renowned personalities, such as the legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, the legendary director Christopher Nupen and others. The Festival Evmelia II and III were accomplished under the aegis of the Greek Ministry of Culture, while Evmelia’s IV communication sponsor was the 3rd Program of ERT (Greek National Radio and Television).

Evmelia’s III (2014) composer-in-residence was the Serbian Aleksandar Simić. The most brilliant highlight of Evmelia III was its farewell concert on April 10th (2014) and at the same time the triumphal return to the concert stage of its Artistic Director, Dino Mastroyiannis, after an absence of more than three years due to a focal dystonia in his right hand. Dino preferred to focus for this special moment on his biggest love: the Lieder accompaniment. He performed in collaboration with the excellent Austrian baritone Georg Lehner the legendary Lieder cycle “Die schöne Müllerin” of Schubert based on poetry of Wilhelm Müller. The concert has been recorded live and released in a CD on September 30th by the Italian company “Sheva Collection”.

Evmelia’ IV (2015) composer-in-residence was the Israeli-French-English composer Nimrod Borenstein. Evmelia IV Festival presented also some of the greatest names of the classical music world, like the Children’s Choir of the Romanian Radio (which came for the first time in Greece during its 60 years history) and the excellent Serbian pianist Aleksandar Serdar. It presented extremely demanding programs with huge success from Martinů until Messiaen and his breathtaking “Quartet for the End of time”, and invited as a special guest Dr. Eftychia (Effie) Papanikolaou from Volos, Professor of Musicology at the “Bowling Green State University” of Ohio (USA), who gave two pre-concert lectures on Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" and on Schumann's "Dichterliebe" and Brahms' "Deutsche Volkslieder" with tremendous success. It dedicated its farewell concert in memoriam of the thrilling Brazilian pianist Roberto Szidon and the great American musicologist John Daverio; in that concert Evmelia IV Festival presented Schumann’s famous Lieder cycle “Dichterliebe” once again with the baritone Georg Lehner and Dino Mastroyiannis, while in the second part the public enjoyed a special selection of Brahms’ famous “Deutsche Volkslieder” (“German Folksongs”) performed by the charismatic young Montenegrin soprano Olivera Tičević together with Georg Lehner and Dino Mastroyiannis. This concert has been repeated on July 16th 2015 at the Bösendorfer Hall of the Mozart’s House in Vienna, organized by the famous Piano company Bösendorfer.

Evmelia V has been accomplished from April 15-22, 2016. The Festival was expected impatiently, because it has organized some concerts of extremely high quality, such as: 1) the two farewell concerts dedicated to 2016 composer-in-residence, the Japanese Takashi Yoshimatsu – one of the greatest living composers of our time. 2) The opening ceremony concert with Niš Symphony Orchestra (Serbia) under Milena Injac and Dino Mastroyiannis as a soloist, who  performed among other works two world-premieres of works for Piano left hand and Orchestra composed and dedicated to him, i.e.: Frédéric Meinders’ (Netherlands) “Variations on a Theme of Chopin” and Anna Leonova’s (Ukraine) “Poem”. The concert is being organized in co-operation with the Municipality of Volos at the "Palaia Ilektriki" Theatre in Volos. 3) A series of special concerts like “Mozart 260”, “Living legends” – dedicated to Nikolai Kapustin (with many great performers – among them the brilliant virtuoso Greek pianist Evangelos Spanos), “Vorrei dirti il mio dolore” (with the young soprano from Volos Stelina Apostolopoulou), the recital of the famous Italian pianist Francesco Libetta and others.

Evmelia VI (April 21-28, 2018) organized 8 concerts of high quality. Its composer-in-residence was the famous Norwegian Ståle Kleiberg. Evmelia VI also focused in the presentation of many distinguished Greek artists, and organized a brilliant opening ceremony concert with the Youth Camerata of the Municipal Conservatory of Volos-Greece performing music from famous movies and musicals.

Evmelia VII has been organized in May and early October 2019 with a multi-faced artistic program and a cetral focus in Greek artists like the famous pianist, composer and arranger Christos Papageorgiou. Its farewell concert on October 1st 2019 was dedicated to the famous Greek composer Nestor Taylor.