Xenitia.16 – a concert-documentary about migration – Premiere 30 April Compagnietheater Amsterdam

With Evi and Andrea after the show.

Xenitia.16 on Hellas Pindakaas! Plus FREE TICKETS for Locomondo! Listen here ON DEMAND the show with Andrea Voets & Evi Filippou. This show is in Greek.

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Bonus: Find out how you can win 10 FREE TICKETS for LOCOMONDO (Melkweg, May 28th)!

Xenitia.16

Premiere 30 April Compagnietheater Amsterdam (at 20’30)

Facebook event.

Percussion: Evi Filippou
Harp: Andrea Voets
Singer-songwriter: Katerina Fotinaki
Film and dramaturgy: Fabio Dondero & Chiara Somajni

Trailer:

https://vimeo.com/158405498

https://vimeo.com/158405498%20

Xenitia.16 is a musical journey, following the footsteps of the latest wave of Greek migrants throughout Europe, focussing on feelings of missing, belonging and nostalgia that all expats share.

Right now, Greece is experiencing the third exodus in a hundred years’ time, caused by a financial crisis which has had worse effects on the country than the Great Depression on the United States in the ’30. Since 2008, 1 out of 50 Greeks has left the country.
Therefore, the old notion of ‘xenitia’ is now more actual than ever. It is a cocktail of homesickness, nostalgia and frustration: feelings that have been expressed in countless melodies over the last 100 years. In a traditional xenitia-concert, the audience finds consolation, comfort and human connection in a collective experience.

Percussionist Evi Filippou (GR, 1993), harpist Andrea Voets (NL-BE, 1989) and their team create a universe of music and voices by playing the songs of xenitia in their own, up to date version on harp and percussion, together with Greek singer-songwriter Katerina Fotinaki.
As ‘musical journalists’, they have interviewed Greek recent migrants about their views on belonging, the sense of home, national characteristics and personal path, together with filmmaker Fabio Dondero and journalist Chiara Somajni. Their voices will be carried out in a ‘documentary on stage’ in which music, text and film intertwine. Through this approach, the main challenges every migrant faces will be revealed and cold statistics will get a human face.

With original works and arrangements of music by traditional and contemporary Greek composers and songwriters, as well as improvisations, (textual) soundscapes and live filmmusic.

After a strict selection process, ‘Xenitia.16’ got financed by the Dutch Ministery of Culture. This is the first ever performance, as part of the ‘Europe by People’ festival on the occassion of the Dutch presidency of the EU. Afterwards, it will tour around Europe, starting with the Belgian premier at ‘de Grote Post’ in Oostende, Belgium.