Athens University History Museum

Tribute to Palestrina

SEASON 2021/22 - 1st Sacred Music Festival

Holy Τuesday 19 April 2022

Δημιουργική Ομάδα

Musicians:

Stelios Papanastassis viola

Yorgos Tamiolakis cello

Lefteris Andriotis Cretan lyre

Konstantinos Sifakis double bass

Christos Tsogias-Razakov oboe

Ilias Skordilis clarinet

Πρωταγωνιστές Παράστασης

Practical information:

- Audience members can enter all venues for free, on a first come first served basis. No advance booking is required.

- Due to the limited space available in many of the festival venues, some of the concerts will be repeated up to three times per day, to give the chance to as large an audience as possible to attend them.

- The concerts of the festival will be of short duration (from 25 to 40 minutes on average), so that audience members can attend more than one, if they wish so.

- The distance from one venue to the other is small, so that audience members have the chance to enjoy many of the festival events.

- The detailed programme will be available online at nationalopera.gr and digitalculture.gov.gr, while the printed programme that will be distributed to the public will include a map with all the venues, summary descriptions of the events, and QR codes referring to the detailed programme on the GNO website.

- All preventive measures against COVID-19 will be adhered to in all venues.

Athens University History Museum

Opera

Tribute to Palestrina

1st Sacred Music Festival

Starts at 17.00, 18.00 and 19.00 |

Duration: approx. 20 min.

Capacity max. 50 person

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The Sibílima Ensemble presents sacred music works by Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), one of the most prominent representatives of polyphony and a highly influential figure in Western ecclesiastical music.

The Sibílima Ensemble was created in 2020 in Athens. They draw upon material from early to contemporary times, as well as from timbres and styles from traditional and art world musics. The challenge for the group is to organically connect all these different elements. Stelios Papanastassis (viola), Yorgos Tamiolakis (cello) and Lefteris Andriotis (Cretan lyre) are three of the five founding members of the Sibílima Ensemble, whose name is indicative of its repertoire: a mosaic of elements with diverse, even incompatible textures.

In this concert they join forces with three more great musicians, Konstantinos Sifakis (double bass), Christos Tsogias-Razakov (oboe) and Ilias Skordilis (clarinet), to present pieces by Palestrina from the cycle Canticum Canticorum (Adiuro vos filiae Jerusalem, Caput eius aurum optimum, Dilectus meus descendit, Descendi in hortum nucum), which was dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII, as well as Canite tuba from his Second Book of Motets.

Athens University History Museum

The Athens University History Museum is housed in the building known as “Kleanthis’ Residence” or “Old University” that is situated at 5 Tholou St in Plaka, underneath the Acropolis. Its history dates way back before the 18th century, making it one of the few surviving buildings of the pre-Ottoman era. It has the rare privilege to be housed in the same building that housed the first University of independent Greece (1837-1841), which was also the first University in the Balkan peninsula and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region. It first opened as a Museum in 1987, inviting visitors to learn all about the foundation of tertiary education in Greece and the academic legacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

First Sacred Music Festival info leaflet available to read and download here