Author: GREEK WORLD MEDIA

Melbourne’s own singer songwriter Anthea Sidiropoulos has been invited to present her latest music offering in the form of Anthea’s Rubies, a six-song cycle of Mediterranean Dreamtime – highlighting seeds of the diaspora – as part of the Hellenic Museum’s 60th Inaugural Diaspora Celebration. Anthea will perform with Greece’s legendary singers Maria Farantouri and Yiannis Kotsiras, composer Tassos Ioannidis and Melbourne based singer and composer Christos Ioannidis – celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the migration act between Greece and Australia 60 years ago.

This Greek Australian music offering of original works will feature a special tribute to the late Costas Tsicaderis. Greek born and Melbourne raised, Tsicaderis was a local independent music identity. Costas made a huge impact mentoring aspiring musicians in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, who were thirsty and in search of their Hellenic musical roots. Upon his passing, friends and family, colleagues, and event agency The Boite (who supported Costas’ music), gathered to produce an album of his unpublished works, aptly titled Mighty and the Humble, which was released over two concerts at BMW Edge Federation square 2006 and 2008.

Performing two of Costas’ songs within Anthea’s six-song repertoire are longtime collaborative musicians Jacob Papadopoulos on bouzouki, Spiros Papoutsis on accordion, and indigenous didgeridoo player Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie, who were part of the Costas Tsicaderis Ensemble. Joined by guitarist Nikos Kapralos, Anthea’s Rubies will perform live, to include Costas’ mesmerizing instrumental Beyond Mulamein, everyone’s favourite Η Μικροι και η Μεγαλη (Mighty and the Humble) and Anthea’s ode to all Greek migrants Μες την ξενιτια (Foreign Land) all of which were part of Arnold Zable’s compilation album The Fig Tree, which won best folk release in 2004.

Anthea’s Foreign Land continues to inspire many incarnations, like the inspirational soundtrack for student film With One Suitcase, winner of best film at Melbourne’s 2010 Greek Film Festival. It also featured as The Suitcase to Survival Song, as performed by Anthea, for the2012 Australia Day ‘what’s in your suitcase’ celebration theme, at the Myer Music Bowl.

A special performance also included is Διχως Εσε (Without You) from the recently released album Echoes, a tribute to Greek poet Nikiforis Vretakkos with music composed by Greek Australian Arthur Rorris.

As a daughter of the Greek diaspora, Anthea Sidiropoulos will delight audiences with her self-penned songs reflecting life as a first generation Greek Australian woman within Melbourne’s multicultural landscape, performed bilingually with Anthea’s Rubies on this memorable occasion: the Hellenic Museum’s 60th Inaugural Diaspora Celebration.

The performance will take place on Sunday 25 November from 2:00 pm at the Hellenic Museum Corner Williams and Latrobe Streets, Melbourne. This is a free event.

Grants for migrant communities to celebrate Anzac spirit

The NSW government has introduced grants for young people and multicultural communities who wish to take part in Anzac events. Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello announced the Anzac Community Grants program will help schools, community organisations and veterans’ groups to raise awareness of the Anzac legacy in the lead-up to the Centenary of the First World War (2014-2018).

“With more than a quarter of NSW residents being born overseas, we need to ensure that knowledge and respect for Anzac traditions are passed on to all young Australians,” Mr Dominello said.
“On Remembrance Day it is important that all Australians, including people from a multicultural background, embrace the Anzac spirit.”

Grants can be given for up to $5,000 from ex-service organisations, community groups, schools and other educational institutions, local government, museums and historical societies.

“These grants will ensure that the people of NSW, through commemorative and educational initiatives, can share in and honour the enormous sacrifices Anzac diggers have made throughout Australia’s military and peacekeeping history.
“We are particularly keen to support innovative projects that bring people of diverse backgrounds together, or that use the web and social media to bring the Anzac story into the 21st century,” Mr Dominello said.

“A primary school may have an idea to document families identified on the local war memorial, or an ex-service association may want to help veterans share their stories with people who have just arrived in Australia”.

Applications close on Friday, 8 March 2013. For more information and to apply, visit http://www.communities.nsw.gov.au.

Source: SMH

AS HEROIC gods go, Dionysus would fit right into Sydney: god of the grape harvest, bringer of culture and ritual ecstasy, he was the mythological inspiration for Alexander the Great, the 4th century BC Macedonian king and spreader of civilisations who is being honoured with his own blockbuster exhibition in our city on Saturday.

Dionysus, or at least his marble likeness cast in Rome in the second century AD based on the Greek BC original, arrived at the Australian Museum last week.
His tall, bespectacled courier, Andrey Nikolaev, looked a little weary after almost a week accompanying Dionysus over rail, sea and air only for museum staff to finally decide the two-metre tall, 1.5-tonne statue, which can only be moved by the base, was too fragile to part so soon from the wooden crate.

St Petersburg, home of the statue, has no cargo planes, so beginning on November 7, Nikolaev had chaperoned Dionysus by train to Helsinki, then ferry across the Baltic Sea to Travemunde, Germany; another train to Amsterdam; then a Boeing 747 to Frankfurt, Mumbai and Hong Kong; and finally a second Boeing 747, arriving in Sydney on November 13. Having sat in the crate for a day or two to acclimatise on the Australian Museum’s exhibition floor, Dionysus – joined on his plinth in the 18th century by a smaller marble statue bearing a dubious likeness of Persephone or Cora, wife of the ruler of the underworld – met with approval when workers drilled away the wooden crate screws and removed the door.
Why was this god of the grape so important to Alexander the Great? ”Because Dionysus is not just the god of wine, he also is a god of inspiration,” said Anna Trofimova, the head of classical antiquities at The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. ”He was the god, the Greeks believe, that brought culture to different peoples in a lot of countries.”
More to the point, Dionysus was the ”guiding star” for Alexander, who in turn brought civilisation, founded cities and spread Greek language and art from the Mediterranean to Central Asia and India. Alexander was the ”first political leader who thought on the scale of the planet”.
Whether Alexander’s death at the age of 32 was due to fever or poisoning is open to conjecture, but Dr Trofimova is certain of Alexander’s legacy.

”The dream of Alexander, and I believe in it, was unity of mankind between east and western people. His belief in civilisation, this is a great lesson for us; especially important in our days when west and east are very, very sensitive.”

Alexander the Great: 2000 years of treasures opens 24 November 2012 http://t.co/rGK7VnS7