On Thursday, January 26th, on Alexis Kostas’ broadcasting program “Voices and Music” on ERT’s World Radio in the Voice of Greece, Pericles Kanaris from New York was a guest.
Pericles Kanaris was born and raised in Athens but has been living in New York for the past years. He studied music and communication on scholarship in Europe and the USA, earning numerous awards and distinctions. His major artistic moments include his work “Project Innocence” which was presented in its first global performance at the famous Carnegie Hall of New York and the production of the first collection of Greek music “Music of Greece”, ever released by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At some point, he left Greece to seek the sounds from abroad that had enticed him. Kanaris now lives with his family in New York and, like most Greeks living abroad, is looking for ways to combine the two worlds
In collaboration with Greek and foreign musicians, Pericles Kanaris wants to send his own message about the universal potential of Greek culture. Having worked with leading musicians from Greece and abroad, he has noticed differences in people’s approach towards young composers like himself. More specifically, comparing Athens to New York, he notes that “the size of the market and the variety of sounds in New York create a more positive climate to try out and trust young creators”.
With the symbolic title “Up for Air” after a long period of isolation, the composer and singer Pericles Kanaris made a very successful appearance at Symphony Space, at Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
It is the first time that ERT World broadcasts a concert by a Greek artist living abroad, attempting to introduce the work of renowned artists of the Greek Diaspora to Greeks abroad and beyond.