The "Technopolis" of the Municipality of Athens will host Giannis Kotsiras, who, together with the Studiadina of Nea Ionia Volos, will present a concert entitled "The Smyrna of Love", who wake up 90 years of memory with Smyrna songs, at 6 September 2012.

ORCHESTRA ARTISTIC DIRECTOR : ANDREAS KATSIGIANNIS
Performers Thodoris Mermigas and Irini Tumbakis participate

The Student of Nea Ionia Volos and Yiannis Kotsiras , on the occasion of 90 years of memory in Smyrna and the recent release of their album "SMYRNI TOU EROTA", present on Thursday, September 6 at "Technopolis" of the Municipality of Athens on 21:00 a great concert dedicated to the folk tradition and artistic creation of Smyrna. The show's repertoire consists of songs that have marked the 20s, while their traces reach up to World War II. Where can I find a woman who looks like you?, Beautiful Smyrnia,  Antonis Varkaris, Misirlou, The Gelekaki, Micromarried etc.  Elements so different from each other become one in the music that flourishes at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th in the region of Istanbul and Izmir. Songs that were the forerunner of Piraeus [rebetiki] school, σπουδαίων συνθετών, such as Kostas Skarvelis, Δημήτρης Σέμσης, Panagiotis Toundas, Σπύρος Περιστέρης, Νίκος Ρουμπάνης, Yannis Dragatsis or Ogdontakis, Γιάννης Νταλγκάς, Κώστας Κοφινιώτης, Apostolos Hatzichristos and quite traditionally unknown authors. These songs were not written only in Smyrna. They are songs that have every kind of connection with Smyrna. Είτε γράφτηκαν εκεί, whether they come from Smyrna creators in the Greek area.

Η καταστροφή του 1922 after all, was to change the course of Greek history in many ways. Ανάμεσα στα άλλα, he was supposed to bring the great masters of Smyrna from the shores of Asia Minor to cross their art with the Greek musicians. The music performed by the Students, the orchestras that were the biggest "study" where great Asia Minor creators taught and learned, arrived in Greece around 1870, at first on the outskirts of Athens and very soon it also conquered the center of the city of Athens. This kind of orchestra became the first and most authentic musical bridge, harmoniously combining the disparate nationalities, musically, cultural and creative elements of two such different worlds.

The proposed performance is a modern interpretation approach, with one of the most important Greek performers, Yiannis Kotsiras and with the Nea Ionia Volos School under the artistic direction of Andreas Katsigiannis, an excellent orchestra that genuinely and sensitively continues the tradition of the great orchestras that flourished in Asia Minor. With a Mediterranean temperament, excellent interpretations and with the orchestra's particular orchestral eye, the deep eroticism hidden in these songs is shown, with absolute respect for the original musical writing. Thodoris Mermigas and Irini Tumbaki participate in the interpretation.