M U S I C

A series of concerts for children that will showcase the various groups of instruments, which make up a full orchestra, will be held at the Athens Concert Hall on Sunday mornings, starting January 19. It will be a wonderful opportunity for children to learn the sound of the horn, the trumpet, the trombone and the tuba, as they perform characteristic passages from works written for them, by Tchaikovsky, Johnson, Schneider, Skalkottas, Anderson, Brand, Queen and Hadjidakis.

The French clarinetist Louis Sclavis has proved himself over the decades to be one of the leading improvisers  and experimenters of our times. The Atlas Trio (clarinet, keyboards, and guitar) is his current mini-musical laboratory with which he explores rhythms and inner resonances; their music brings together every musical influence that can convey the idea of a journey and represents personal and group expressive freedom in the creative music of today. They play at the Onassis Cultural Centre on January 18.

O P E R A

One of Verdi’s most thrilling operas, Macbeth is the Greek National Opera’s first production for 2014 and will be staged at the Athens Concert Hall, from January 17. Based on the play of the same title by William Shakespeare, the opera offers a rare insight into the psychology of the leading roles, General Macbeth and his wife, two ruthless characters prepared to go to extremes in order to take the throne of Scotland. The opera will be presented together with the ballet that Verdi composed for the Paris staging of the piece. The direction is by the acclaimed opera director Lorenzo Mariani. Myron Michailidis conducts.

P O E T R Y

Poets Nicos Alexiou and Yiorgos Chouliaras present their recently published works along the thematic triptych of Exile-People-Places, at the Hellenic American Union, on January 16. The poetry collections Astoria, New York and Dictionary of Memories have as a common ground the conversion of experiences, senses and the surrounding physical and social space to a source of inspiration and their transmutation into works, which can be pegged as autobiographical but essentially relate to the wider, human experience. The presentation will be moderated by journalist John Baskozos.