Oratorio “The Song of the Nations”by Panagiotis Karousos dedicated to the United Nations

OLGA SKEKLIOU, IRINI KONSTA, REA VOUDOURI, PANAGIOTIS DIPLAROS,

GIANNIS DARIOS, BASILIKI PARASKEVOPOULOU, NIKI ZACHAROPOULOU,

ARGYRIS KOTONIKOLAOU, NINA GIATRA, FOTEINI PAPACHRISTOU,

DIMITRIS KOTTARIDIS (CELLO), CHRISTIANA MANOU (PIANO)

COORDINATOR: REA VOUDOURI (SOPRANO)

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS (COMPOSER)

Greetings

IOANNIS MARONITIS, PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB FOR UNESCO OF PIRAEUS & ISLANDS

PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS  

Panagiotis Karousos is a renowned Greek-Canadian composer who brings to his music the philosophy and spiritualism of the Greek classics. He studies music at the University of Montreal and McGill University. Although he did not complete his studies he was one of the most active composers of his generation. His Symphony No.1 “Liberty”, was presented in Canada and New York with great success with the Astoria Symphony and maestro Silas Nathaniel Huff. He did many concerts in Canada with his Liberty Symphony, and Symphony No.2 “Olympic” with the FACE Symphony Orchestra, the OSJL-L Symphony Orchestra and the Monteregie Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestros Andre Gauthier, Theodora Stathopoulos and Luc Chaput. The Piano Concerto for Peace was presented with pianist Nathalie Joncas under UNESCO auspices in the Montreal Popular Concerts series in Montreal’s Maurice Richard Arena to an audience of 5000 people. The Suite Montrealaise was commended from the City of Montreal to mark the Millennium. The Olympic Flame choir was presented with the Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of Gunst wat'n Kunst at Hague, Holland, with maestro Rafael Pylarinos. P. Karousos Violin Concerto was presented in New York, under the direction of maestro Grant Gilman. The opera Alexander the Great (2008) presented in Montreal at the Montreal Notre Dame Basilica, in Chicago Illinois with the American Symphony Orchestra of Chicago and conducted by David Stech, in North Carolina Theatre with East Coast Philharmonic and soloists under the direction of Grant Gilman, and in Toronto at P.C. Ho Theater Cultural Center of Toronto with the Sneak Peak Symphony Orchestra of Toronto University and soloists under the direction of maestro Victor Cheng, and in Buenos Aires (Sala Borges de la Biblioteca Nacional de Argentina 2009). The opera Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus) presented in Place des Arts, Montreal Canada two seasons 1994 in Modern Greek and 1996 in the French translation of Professor Jacques Bouchard (director of Neo-​Hellenic studies at the University of Montreal) with Canadian bass Joseph Rouleau, mezzo Annamaria Popescu, pianist Mme Claudette Denys, sopranos Leila Chalfoun, Chantal Parent, etc. The opera presented in Los Angeles at Beverly Hills City Hall 1998, in New York with the Astoria Symphony and soloists, and in Washington DC with The District of Columbia Symphony Orchestra with maestro Grant Gilman in 2008.

1. Karousos returned to Greece in 2012 and in 2013 he did major presentations of the opera Prometheus Bound in Ancient Greek Theaters (Epidaurus, Messina, Sikyon, Ancient Agora), and the National Archeological Meseum of Greece. In 2014 Prometheus presented with bass Vasilis Asimakopoulos in the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan and in Mamie Fay auditorium in Queens, New York under the auspices of the Club for UNESCO of Piraeus and Islands.

His Symphony No.4 “Earth” premiered in 2014 with City of Athens Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Eleftherios Kalkanis. In 11 December 2014 he presented in Athens Greece his "Tuba Concerto" dedicated to the International Mountain Day under the Auspices of United Nations. The lyric tragedy "Prometheus Bound" is the first Greek popular opera presented internationally and always with great success in areas such as the Sorbonne, Place des Arts in Canada, Epidaurus, UN, Sofia National Opera and Ballet, getting rave reviews.  In 2016 the opera “Trachiniae – Olympic Flame” (Sophocles) was the first Greek opera presented at Lincoln Center of NY under the direction of conductor Jestin Pieper, following an open-air presentation in the Summer Festival of Astoria (Athens Square Park Summer Festival 2016) with Morten Kjøsnes, Stella Papatheodorou, Demetrios Tsinopoulos, Elisabeth Shoup, Kofi Hayford, Viktoriya Koreneva, Ola Rafalo, and presented by Billy and Despina Chrissochos.  His Liederabend and chamber music was presented in Berlin with pianist Theodosia Ntokou and musicians from Berliner Camerata with impressed reviews in 2015, and in 2016 at The Royal College of Music in London. In 2019 his Oratorio: "Song of the Nations: The United Nations - Hope of Mankind" was presented with soloists:  Irini Konsta, soprano and Vasilis Asimakopoulos, bass, the Music Educators' Choir of Attiki “Choremus” and the Graduates’ Choir of the Music High School of Pallini, and the Hellenic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Faidra Giannelou, in Athens and Corinth, Greece. In 2021 P. Karousos presented a numerous of concerts for the 200 years of Independents of Greece events (1821-2021) of his new works by set to music great poets’ poems.

The opera Prometheus Bound also did many presentations in the Secondary Education Schools with a Seminar in a program approved by the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs of Greece and the Institute of Educational Policy (I.E.P.).The purpose of the program is to understand the students the connection of the opera with the ancient Greek tragedy through the Prosody.

The Greek National Radio Television did many profiles on him and broadcasted live his works with some of the most talented artists of opera and classical music.