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By Eleni KostopoulosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Longtime friendsand musical legends VickyMoscholiou and GrigorisBithikotsis were two of the mostbeloved Greek singers of theirtime, and on May 14, fans ofthe most representative folksongs and rembetika of Greecehad a chance to relive the duo’sclassic songs of yesterday in amore contemporary setting.Renowned singer/songwriterMelina Aslanidou, accompaniedby singer Vangelis Douvalis andher eight-member orchestra ledby the bouzouki maestro/soloistManolis Karantinis, paid tributeto the talented Moscholiou andBithikotsis in a benefit concertfor Aktina Productions, Inc.called Greek Music Journey2010 at New York City’s land-mark theater, The Town Hall.
“I am extremely proud of allthe outpouring of support wereceived at the concert,” ElenaMaroulleti, President of AktinaProuductions, Inc. and ConcertExecutive Producer, told TheNational Herald. “Both GreekAmericans and non-Greeks re-sponded to our invitation tospend a memorable eveningfilled with beautiful representa-tive songs from the Greek musicrepertoire.” Thanks to the tech-nical help of Tom Stouras, pho-tos and video clips of Moscho-liou and Bithikotsis wereprojected on a backdrop duringthe show, adding a nostalgic vi-sual touch to the program. Theaudience enthusiastically
clapped and sang along in uni-son to almost every song in thetwo-hour long event.
Aslanidou, who broughtgreat energy to the stage withboth her vocals and her moves,performed classic hits ofMoscholiou, such as Chathike toFeggari (from the movie Lola,music by Stavros Xarhakos,)Min Ta Filas Ta Matia mou (byApostolos Kaldaras,) Ximero-mata, Dilina, Pai, Pai, (music byGeorge Zambetas,) as well ashits by by Bithikotsis such asMia Kyriaki, Tis Dikeosinis Ilie(music by Mikis Theodorakis)and Ena Amaxi Me Dyo Aloga(music by Bithikotsis.) Douvalissang timeless hits by Bithikotsissuch as To Tragoudi Tis Xenitias(music by Theodorakis,) Pouneta Chronia and Ta Matokladasou Lampoun. During his rendi-tion of Roloi Komboloi by AkisPanou, Douvalis showed off hisinstrumental talents on thebaglama. Karantinis especiallywowed the crowd withBithikotsi classics including StoMbelami To Ouzeri and ToTrelokoritso.
“All the musicians performedthe songs of two legendarysingers with dignity and re-spect,” Maroulleti said, alsopraising the melodious orches-tra, which included AndreasKarantinis on second bouzouki,Spyridonas Pagiatis on key-boards, Ioannis Gregoriou onbass, Manolis Androulakis onguitars and Alexandros Aposto-lakis on drums. “MelinaAslanidou, with her sensationalvoice, really gave it her all.
Manolis Karantidis, one of thegreatest bouzouki players ofGreece, really added to the per-formance. I was amazed notonly with his performance as amusician, but with his voice aswell. His son Andreas Karan-tidis, was equally as amazing[on the bouzouki].”
During their impressive ca-reers, Bithikotsis and Moscho-liou teamed up with andrecorded with Greece’s leadingcomposers including the award-winning Theodorakis (Zorba theGreek) and Manos Hadjidakis(Never on Sunday.) The twomet in the early 1960s, afterwhich Bithikotsis served as amentor to Moscholiou. Bothartists passed away in 2005 -Moscholiou was 62 andBithikotsis was 83. They werelaid to rest in neighboringgraves. “With wholehearted re-spect and great love we are herefor this tribute, which remindsus of the Greece we all love,”Aslanidou told concert-goers,many of whom traveled all theway from Los Angeles, Bostonand Washington to attend theshow, according to Maroulleti.
“[The outpouring of support]gives us strength to continue[our mission],” Maroulleti toldTNH. “It confirms that peoplethirst for these kinds of perfor-mances that promote qualityGreek music.”
Although organizers haven’ttallied the concert’s earningsyet, Maroulleti said that’s notthe most significant aspect ofthe concert. “What is importantis that we gave a memorable
performance with great respectto the audience that embracedthe effort,” she said.
Greek Music Journey was es-tablished in 1994 by Maroulletito promote the rich musical in-heritance of Greece through thepresentation of unique concertsthat highlight each year differ-ent representative aspects of theGreek music repertoire. RecentAKTINA notable performancesinclude, The Songs Of GreekCinema in 2009 with MelinaAslanidou and Vangelis Dou-valis, From Markos Vamvakaristo Manos Loizos in 2008 withManolis Mitsias and Tribute toGeorge Zambetas in 2007 withKostas Makedonas.
NEW YORK- Evangelos Limpan-toudis is making news at NewYork University’s Poly programeven before he sets foot in aclassroom. Limpantoudis, whowrites a regular feature on ar-chitecture for The National Her-ald, will begin a master’s pro-gram in the constructionmanagement program this falland has received the CatherineB. Reynolds Foundation Fellow-ship for Social Entrepreneur-ship, which prepares recipientsto be leaders in the next gener-ation of social entrepreneurs.
Limpantoudis and the sevenother students from NYU’s 11schools honored with the com-petitive Reynolds Fellowshipwill receive a total of up to$50,000 for two years of studyand participate in an intensivecurricular and co-curricular pro-gram comprised of workshops,retreats, and one-on-one coach-ing sessions with executives inthe field of social entrepreneur-ship. He is the first student fromNYU-Polytechnic to receive thefellowship.
Limpantoudis received hisMaster’s of Architecture degreefrom MIT, is a LEED AP, and isan associate member of theAmerican Institute of Architects.He has worked for several ar-chitecture firms in New Yorkand Boston, and has served asadjunct faculty at the New York
Institute of Technology, wherehe taught courses in Visualiza-tion, Urban Theory and Sustain-ability. His goal is to spread themessage about the importanceof affordable sustainable archi-tecture through both practiceand education, by establishinga non-profit design collaborativethat will offer pro bono sustain-able architecture services andeducation to low-income fami-lies and communities.
One of the characteristics ofhis venture, which will be calledCollaborative for AffordableSustainable Architecture, is theextent to which he has thoughtit through. From the business-plan, to the initial group of vol-unteers, everything seems to beclear, and still he said he wantsto allow as much feedback fromthe Poly and NYU communityas possible. “I would be happyto see the Collaborative becomesomething I haven’t eventhought of yet,” he says. “Con-versation and feedback frommembers of the program andthe NYU-Poly community willhelp guide me”.
When asked what most ex-cites him about the ReynoldsFellowship, he expressed grati-tude for the financial support itwill provide and the structuredcurricular activities in social en-terpreneurship. Still, what hevalues the most is the social con-
nections it is sure to yield. “Iwill be part of a group of amaz-ing people who are fully dedi-cated to their causes and thecause of social entrepreneurshipin general,” he says. “Having ac-cess to such a team of talentedindividuals, all thirsty forchange and for making a differ-ence, is the best resource a so-
cial entrepreneur could ever askfor,” he said.
The cadre of socially-mindedscholars chosen as Reynolds fel-lows are typically motivated bya desire to remake the world bydisrupting corrosive social pat-terns with innovative and last-ing solutions. Some join the pro-gram still in the development
stages of their idea; others ar-rive ready to launch a change-making venture, while a few aresomewhere in between. Repre-senting a range of disciplines,applicants are also academicallyaccomplished in their fields andcan demonstrate an active his-tory in issues of social impor-tance.
For Limpantoudis, that his-tory stretches to his undergrad-uate years at Hobart & WilliamSmith Colleges, where he re-ceived his bachelor’s degree infine arts and architecture stud-ies. There, he led a studentgroup that worked to endcrimes against humanity, anearly signal of his passion forcivic involvement. He also ledan architecture student groupand wrote an honors thesisabout Sustainable Architecture,an interest which he has carriedwith him ever since, through hisarchitecture studies at MIT, tohis teaching and his practice.Now he hopes to make Afford-able Sustainable Architecturepart of his focus at Poly.
If you are interested in learningmore about the “Collaborativefor Affordable Sustainable Ar-chitecture” project or wouldlike to get involved, please feelfree to contact EvangelosLimpantoudis directly at [email protected]
ARTS&CULTURE6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 22-28, 2010
By Eleni KostopoulosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – The ornate hair-styles worn by the Erechtheionmarble Caryatids at the Acrop-olis Museum in Athens may bean eyeful for the modern spec-tator, but for Katherine A.Schwab, Ph.D. of Fairfield Uni-versity, they’re an opportunityto learn about the women of An-cient Greece in a more tangibleway. The Caryatid HairstylingProject, spearheaded by Schwablast year, tested the reality orfantasy of these hairstyles by en-gaging student volunteers asmodels while a professionalhairstylist recreated the individ-ual coiffures of the maidens whostand in place of columns in theSouth Porch.
“I was responsible for (a 2007exhibition organized by the Be-naki Museum called The Cre-ative Photograph in Archaeol-ogy) coming to Fairfield,”Schwab told The National Her-ald, noting that as an organizerof the symposium that coincidedwith the opening of the exhibi-tion, she was deeply involvedwith looking at the selected pho-tographs from the planningphases to the exhibition closing.“Three photographs by GoestaHellner (1970) of the Caryatidscontinually drew my attention.The exhibition included fourother views of the Caryatids byWalter Hege (1928-29.) I begannoticing subtle but fascinatingdifferences in the elaborate Cary-atid hairstyles. A good friend inFairfield, who often has her hairdone in various ways for bigevents in New York, suggestedthat I have my hair styled likethe Caryatids for the symposiumand exhibition opening and she
recommended a professionalhair stylist who works at a salonin town. I brought copies of theexhibition photographs to thestylist and she was able toquickly determine the variousbraiding techniques and how thehairstyle came together. She dida practice session with my hair,a good trial and error run-through, and then she knew ex-actly what to do with my hair onthe day of the symposium andexhibition opening. My hair isreally not long enough or thickenough to carry off this hairstylewith any conviction, but the styl-ist made a lovely adaptation.”
It was a positive response toher hairstyle by students thatprompted Schwab to thinkabout the possibility of a projectwhere six students would be themodels. The end result was theCaryatid Hairstyling Project andDVD, funded by a Faculty Re-search Grant and additionalsupport from the Classical Stud-ies Program, which today canbe used by students and educa-tors alike, who want to learn alittle something extra about theCaryatids.
“The Caryatids are known asKore (maiden) A through F andI arranged the photographs ac-cordingly to help the stylist,Milexy Torres, study the exam-ples, so (she) used these imagesto decide which student wouldbe which Kore,” Schwab said.“We staggered the arrival of thestudent models, so some of thestudents were finished early andneeded to wait additional hoursbefore we went outside to filmthem standing in the arrange-ment matching the originalCaryatids. Some of the hair-styles took longer than others,primarily due to the texture of
the students’ hair. For example,the student who was Kore B hadthick curly hair that was quitelong. The stylist only neededabout 40 minutes to completeher hairstyle, because the hairtexture lent itself to the style.Those with long, thick andstraighter hair took longer.
Frankly, while the day was long,it was exciting to see each hair-style emerge.”
Besides being visually stim-ulating, the project encouragedmany questions about the Cary-atids. “It was 92 degrees andthis prompted some very prac-tical questions since the heat in
many ways approximated thesummer time in Athens,”Schwab said. “How long doesthe hairstyle last? How long didit take a household of womento arrange their hair in this stylebefore going to participate in re-ligious festivals?”
Schwab’s fascination withthe Parthenon, however, beganlong before the Caryatid Hair-styling Project. “Since 1991, westarted a plaster cast collectionat Fairfield University, with 38long-term loans from the Met-ropolitan Museum of Art’s his-toric collection, which hasgrown with 19 additional castsgifted by the Met in 2004, giftsfrom individual donors and thenewest gift of eight casts fromthe 1st Ephorate of Prehistoricand Classical Antiquities, Athens(the Acropolis) only one monthago,” she said. “We now have78 plaster casts representingsculpture from ancient Greecethrough the Italian Renaissance.Our collection is strongest inGreek art, and within it, castsof the Parthenon sculptural pro-gram. As curator of the collec-tion, I have worked with stu-dents since 1991 to clean,repair, and conduct research onthese casts.”
Schwab completed her doc-toral studies at the Institute ofFine Arts, New York University,and said she was especiallylucky to study with great schol-ars including Professor EvelynHarrison whose expertise on theParthenon sculptural program iswell known. Her dissertationtopic compared vase represen-tations with the Parthenonmetopes as an iconographicalstudy.
“The sculpture of theParthenon remains astonish-
ingly fresh and timeless todayand I think this quality continu-ally keeps attracting scholarlyattention,” she said. “My currentwork is focused on theParthenon east and northmetopes, which have suffereddamage inflicted before or bythe time the temple was trans-formed into a church. Neverthe-less, the metope surface pro-vides clues to the originalcomposition. My researchdrawings of the current metopesurface for the east and northseries can be seen, as grayscalescans, on the lower edge of theframes surrounding the metopesin the Acropolis Museum. Cur-rently, I am in Athens and amworking on an additional set ofdrawings in which I propose theoriginal composition, no easytask but well worth the work.”
Next October, Fairfield Uni-versity’s Bellarmine Museumwill open. One of the museum’smain attractions will be agallery devoted to highlightsfrom their cast collection as wellas a corridor with examples rep-resenting Parthenon sculpture.
“This is a dream come true,and to be able to fully use thecasts as a teaching collection ina museum setting is remark-able,” said Schwab. “Right nowI am on sabbatical, but I will re-turn to the classroom in Sep-tember and teach a survey classon Greek art in our new smartclassroom adjacent to the corri-dor of Parthenon casts. Our‘classroom’ can now embracethe installation of plaster castsmaking clear the actual dimen-sions of the original objects. Itis a whole new chapter in teach-ing art history at Fairfield.”
TNH Architecture Writer Wins Social Leader Fellowship Award
TNH columnist Evangelos Limpantoudis became the first stu-dent of NYU-Polytechnic to receive the Reynolds Fellowship.
For These C.T. Students, a New Hairstyle as Ancient as the Acropolis
Stylist Milexy Torres styles the hair of a Fairfield Universitystudent to replicate that of a Caryatid seen at the Parthenon.
May 25thOne morning I will open the doorand I will go out in the streetsas I did yesterday.And I won't be thinking aboutanything other thanjust one piece of the fatherand one piece of the sea-those two pieces they didn't de-prive me of-and the city. The city which theytransformed into a rotting corpse.And our friends that are no more.One morning I will open the doorstraight into the fireand I will enter as I did yester-dayshouting "fascists!!"constructing barricades andthrowing rockswith a red bannerheld high, shining in the sun-beams.I will open the doorand it's time to tell you-not that I am afraid-but, see, I want to tell you that Ididn't make it in timeand that you have to learnnot to be going out in the streetswithout weapons as I did-because I didn't make it in time-because then you will disappearas I disappeared"like that" "in the void"cracked into little pieces madeof sea, childhood yearsand red banners.One morning I will open the doorand I will be gonecarrying the dream of the revo-lutionwithin the infinite lonelinessof the paper-made barricadesbearing the label -do not believethem!-"Provocator".
By Katerina GogouTranslated by G.Chalkiadakis.
GREEK POETRY
Aktina President Elena Maroulleti (L) with renowned singerMarina Aslanidou (R) at The Town Hall in New York City.
betsy AnGeletti
Out of the Past: The Voices of Moscholiou and Bithikotsis Ring again
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