Corfu Reading Society - An event in honour of the late composer and member of the society, Yorgos Sicilianos

Schedule:

On 19 February 2015, the Reading Society of Corfu and professors from the Ionian University’s Department of Music Studies—Nikos Tsouchlos, Athina Fytika, and Panos Vlagkopoulos—honoured the memory and work of the renowned Greek composer Yorgos Sicilianos (1920–2005) in a special event. Sicilianos, a member of the Reading Society and deeply connected to Corfu through his marriage to Corfiot professor Elli Giotopoulou in 1957, held a special affection for the island.

The event began with a welcome address by the Reading Society’s president, Yiannis Pieris, followed by a letter from Elly Yotopoulou. Nikos Tsouchlos then presented aspects of Sicilianos’ life and career, sharing personal accounts from the composer and his associates. Tsouchlos highlighted Sicilianos’ reflections on art’s true purpose and the importance of communication between creator and audience. He also discussed works from the three distinct phases of Sicilianos’ compositional journey: his early nationalist period, his later turn toward modernism, and his mature, contemplative phase. Despite stylistic differences, all these periods reflected Sicilianos’ outward-looking perspective and deep sense of Greek identity.

Athena Fytika performed Eight Children’s Miniatures, Op. 23 on piano, one of Sicilianos’ most famous works, composed in 1963 and dedicated to his then three-year-old son. The event concluded with Panos Vlagkopoulos’ talk on Sicilianos’ close relationship with literature, which inspired many of his musical creations, including works based on poetry by C. P. Cavafy and Samuel Beckett.

Source: Enimerosi