General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
NEW YORK – Greek-American Grammy-nominated artist Eric Alexandrakis has released yet another component from his critically acclaimed Terra series of releases. Alexandrakis’ latest release, Terra: Music Is The Medicine Which Keeps My World Spinning In Harmony [Living With Post-Cancer Trauma Via Music’s Healing Powers], follows in the format footsteps of his Grammy-nominated musical Spoken Word album I.V. Catatonia: 20 Years As A Two-Time Cancer Survivor. This time the focus is on the value of music therapy, using Alexandrakis’ cancer treatments as a reference, but also touches upon its effects on other multiple ailments including PTSD, dementia, Alzheimer’s, domestic abuse, Parkinson’s, and so on.
Alexandrakis said: “I find that if we aren’t creating ripples that others can benefit from, we’re not only not doing our jobs as members of this corporeal community, but we’re also limiting the value of our existence, both now, and once we are gone. That’s how we live on and on…by making positive ripples.”
He noted in a post on social media that the album has been included on this year’s Grammy ballot in the Best Spoken Word Category.
When asked how long the project took from idea to realization, Alexandrakis told The National Herald: “The whole thing took about a year. The idea came a year ago, and the actual spoken word part was written over the last year, and recorded last month [September].”
Mixing both Spoken Word and Alexandrakis’ brand of Avant-Alternative music, the album’s musical component is a mix of influences which includes late 60’s Pop, early New Wave, and film music. All tracks are written, arranged, produced, performed, recorded and mixed by Alexandrakis [with a little help from friends here and there including John Taylor (Duran Duran), Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Duran Duran, George Harrison, Eric Clapton), composers/producers Starr Parodi & Jeff Fair, up and coming artist Isolde Fair, producer/engineer Kirk Kelsey (The Smashing Pumpkins, Keith Urban), and Alexandrakis’ 13 year old son, who played drums on one song].
Coming on the heels of I.V. Catatonia: 20 Years As A Two-Time Cancer Survivor, which was nominated for Best Spoken Word Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards alongside fellow nominees Michelle Obama and The Beastie Boys, Alexandrakis continues his travel themed series of releases.
Highly creative since childhood, Alexandrakis is a student of all artistic disciplines. Along with his album releases, he provides music for various media, and has even charted nationally with two original Christmas songs and productions for other artists. He is also involved in film production, and was fortunate to have a film he conceptualized and scored, short-list at Cannes Lions in 2017, Psychogenic Fugue starring John Malkovich and directed by Sandro. Alexandrakis was the first person in the industry to produce a digitally watermarked CD, and he continues to find innovative ways to express himself through his songwriting, productions, and company Minoan Music.
His family history is dramatic as well as noted in his biography, Nazis executed his father’s father, while his mother’s father was a well-known mechanical innovator in Egypt. His parents were immigrants from Greece and highly accomplished in their field. Alexandrakis’ godfather would tell him stories about his good friend and neighbor Albert Einstein. He is even an ancestor of Cretan freedom fighter Kostas Giaboudakis, who famously blew up the gun powder room at Crete’s Arkadi Monastery in 1867.
His father’s list of impressive accomplishments includes his role as one of the main co-founders of the University of Crete. His accomplished mother is highly regarded within Philosophy circles and through her published works. No one in the family, it seemed, was especially musical.
Alexandrakis’ earliest musical memories are hearing classical music from his crib, noticing rhythms and grooves from European disco while living in Greece, gravitating to a family friend’s copy of The Beatles’ White Album, and hearing the works of film composer John Williams. An initial interest in piano set him on course. He studied classical piano from the age of 6 to 16 years old and could not only sight read music, and sing, but was also able to transfer what he learned to other instruments, picking them up with ease.
Terra: Music Is The Medicine Which Keeps My World Spinning In Harmony [Living With Post-Cancer Trauma Via Music’s Healing Powers] by Eric Alexandrakis is out now via Apple Music.
More information is available online: www.EricAlexandrakis.com.
Follow on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/EricSGAlexandrakis
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/ESGAlexandrakis
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Alexandrakis.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
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