In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, on Sunday, December 18, 2022, the show "Salt of the Earth" and Lampros Liavas invite us to a musical tribute about the role and importance of song as identity and memory for Greek refugees.
Representative texts and songs from Smyrna-Ionia, Constantinople-Propontis, Pontus and Cappadocia are presented. Reference is made to musical life before 1922 in the thriving communities of the ottoman empire Greeks, as well as to the loss and trauma of refugee life, as they have been reflected in the songs. In the end, the settlement in the new homelands will be presented, where the refugees, through song and dance, proclaimed their identity, got courage to rebuild their lives and significantly influenced local music, while the "Asia Minor School of Rebetiko" produced top musicians and singers.
The narrative unfolds through shocking oral testimonies and texts of the era, accompanied by rare audio-visual material, from which the people and human stories that were captured in the songs emerge. Thus, the role of song as an ark of collective memory, but also as solace and a driving force for the rebirth and restart of Hellenism after the uprooting, is highlighted.
The excellent musical group "POLIS Ensemble", which includes some of the most renowned virtuosos of traditional instruments of the new generation, will participate: Stefanos Dorbarakis (qanun), Alexandros Kapsokavadis (lavta, guitar), Manousos Klapakis (percussion), Giorgos Kontogiannis (lyres), Theodoros Kouelis (double bass) and Nikos Paraoulakis (ney, kaval, flutes). Thodoris Mermigkas and Ifigenia Ioannou participate in vocals.
