What unites us

Greece, Athens, Herod's Atticus Odeon

Thursday, 7 September 2023, 21:00

Two great and internationally recognised artists, two iconic  personalities join their voices at the foot of the Athens Acropolis and sing for solidarity and the peaceful coexistence of people. The Greek performer and the Turkish composer give a unique concert at the Herod’s Atticus Odeon with songs from their common repertoire, as well as from the works of Mikis Theodorakis.

The friendship between Maria Farantouri and Zülfü Livaneli spans more than four decades of mutual appreciation and cordial cooperation with concerts in Turkey, Greece and other European countries, as well as in the United States, serving as a model for open communication and peaceful coexistence of neighbouring nations through their art. From Athens to Istanbul and from Berlin to New York, always in sold out theatres, the two artists have collaborated in dozens of concerts around the world, proving that music and songs inspire and bring people closer.

Two albums in common, set to music by Livaneli, the first in 1982 (Maria Farantouri sings Livaneli – lyrics by Lefteris Papadopoulos), and the second in 2005 (The Memory of Water – lyrics by Agathi Dimitrouka), were loved by Greeks, Turks and not only. The programme of the concert at the Herodeion is completed by songs by Mikis Theodorakis, who together with Lebaneli – in the late 1980s – created the Greek-Turkish Friendship Committee for the further rapprochement of the two people.

In 2000, Maria Faradouri and Zülfü Livaneli sang together under the baton of the internationally renowned conductor Zubin Mehta at the UNESCO MILLENNIUM celebration in Paris, at an event to overcome problems of proximity. An effort that the two artists never stopped, since relations between peoples are like relations between people: they need constant vigilance.