Sunday 11 May 2025
12:00 p.m.
George Hadjinikos Hall
Horto, South Pelion
Entrance: 10 euro
On the basis of lyricism, nostalgia and poetic sensitivity, soprano Mariangela Hadjistamatiou and pianist Nikos Adraskelas present a recital for voice and piano with selected songs and cycles from Bellini, Schubert, Mahler, Berg, Milhaud, Debussy and Hadjidakis.
The programme traces different aspects of love, as captured in poetry and set to music by some of the most important composers from the 18th century onwards. Romantic and idealised love, betrayal and betrayal, the memory of a past happiness, carnal desire, illicit love, market love, despair, unrequited passion; the many and contradictory faces of love are presented through different musical idioms, cultural contexts and, of course, the personal style of each composer.
Mariangela Hadjistamatiou is a versatile performer with a special love for 17th century Italian Baroque and Mozart. She is noted for her versatility in a wide repertoire, including works by contemporary and living composers. Since 2017 she has dedicated herself to the research and interpretation of the Jewish musical tradition in Greece, with an emphasis on the Sephardic heritage, while she works closely with institutions such as the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the Jewish Museums of Athens and Thessaloniki, Israeli communities and the I.H.R.A., participating in Holocaust commemoration events.
In 2023 she published her first book, The Songs of the Holocaust of Greek Jews, accompanied by a digital disc. In 2022 she released the album Unknown musical treasures of Greek Jews in collaboration with the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on the topic of music in the period of the Holocaust of the Greek Jews.
In the field of classical music, she performs mainly early music as well as chamber music, collaborating with ensembles and musicians from Greece and abroad. She is a founding member of the Pellegrinaggio al levante Ensemble, Gli argonauti ensemble, Les enfants du siècle duo, and the London-based Duo Mediterraneo.
She has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and the USA. From 2012-2015 he taught vocal performance at the Royal Mahidol University in Thailand, where she reorganized the language program for singers. She also taught phonetics to children aged 6-12 at the United Nations school, NIST. In addition, she has worked as a soloist with orchestras and institutions performing opera, oratorio and chamber music.
During her seven-year stay in the United States, she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in vocal performance from Bowling Green State University in Ohio under the tutelage of such notable artists as Christopher Scholl and Myra Merritt. She has participated in religious and chamber music ensembles and has also worked with the University of Michigan’s Greek Studies program and other organizations to promote contemporary Greek classical music. She was also active in the field of artistic entrepreneurship working in cultural event planning and artist photography.
From 2002-2006 she lived between Greece, Italy and France, taking her first professional steps at the Thessaloniki Opera. She studied Italian and French language in Perugia and Paris, respectively.
She was born in Kavala and grew up in Volos. Today she lives and creates between Pelion and the world.
Nikos Adraskelas was born in 1984 in Athens. He started his musical studies at the Ars Nova Conservatory and in 2004 he completed his piano diploma (class of Christina Tertipi). At the same time he studies and continues in theory with the corresponding titles: tonal harmony (with Yannis Pantazatos), baroque and renaissance counterpoint (with Panagiotis Adam), practical harmony (with Alexandros Kalogeras), fugue (with Yannis Karkala) while in 2018 he completes his studies in choir conducting with the corresponding diploma at the Dimitris Demopoulos Conservatory (Kozani) with Nikos Efthymiadis. His relationship with George Hadjinikos, whom he first met at the Horto seminars in South Pelion in 2003, was decisive for his musical development.
From 2006 to 2011, together with Christos Marinos, as a piano duo, they gave concerts in Greece, Austria, the Netherlands and England, many of them in collaboration with orchestras, chamber music ensembles and lyric singers.
In 2011 he settled permanently in Horto where he founded the social multicultural choir Hortodia whose activities are artistically and socially part of the life of the inhabitants of South Pelion. In 2014 and 2015 he composes the music for the performances of the Volos Theatre The Fusiliers of Katsipora by F.G. Lorca and The Little Prince by S. Exupery. From 2015 to 2021 he is the director of the choirs and piano teacher at the Volos Municipal Conservatory. In 2017 he became secretary of the Angelinis-Hadjinikou Foundation and main organizer of the Chortos Festival where he continues to this day, alongside piano teaching, the development of musical skills in young and old through group lessons and choir ensembles. In 2022 he also took over the Mixed Choir of the Municipal Unit of Agrias Volos, of which he is the conductor until today.
