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.
ATHENS – The renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis celebrated his 95th birthday on July 29. During his lengthy career, Theodorakis has composed some of the most recognizable and iconic music in the world, including the film scores for Zorba the Greek, Z, and Serpico.
His composition the Mauthausen Trilogy, also known as The Ballad of Mauthausen, based on the poems of Iakovos Kambanellis, has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust."
The generations of Greeks who grew up with his songs continue to sing them regardless of political affiliation and in spite of the fact that Theodorakis has long been associated with the Greek Left. Though he had ties to the Communist Party, he served as government minister under right-wing Constantine Mitsotakis in the early 1990’s.
During the junta, Theodorakis was jailed, sent to prison camps, and then was allowed to go into exile after an international solidarity movement, led by such well-known personalities as Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller, and Harry Belafonte demanded his release. On the request of the French politician Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, Theodorakis was allowed to go into exile on April 13, 1970, flying to Paris secretly from an Onassis-owned private airport outside Athens. Theodorakis’ music was banned during the junta.
Today, he is revered for his outstanding contributions to music and to society at large. The historic concert, All of Greece for Mikis – 1,000 Voices, was held in 2017 in his honor with the then-91-year-old in attendance. Health problems did not deter the world-renowned composer from rising twice from his wheelchair to show his appreciation for the audience. Just days before the concert, he said in an interview that his biggest wish was to stand up from his wheelchair and conduct his famous song To Perigiali to Kryfo (The Secret Beach). The concert was just a brief glimpse of how much Theodorakis means to Greece and Greeks everywhere.
In recent years, Theodorakis also struggled with health issues and had been hospitalized for heart problems.
We wish him all the best and Xronia polla!
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
LONDON (AP) — The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection.
ATHENS - The European Union needs to get involved in the case of the two-year jail sentence given ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri who was elected Mayor of the seaside town of Himare and said the trial was a farce to get him and protect Prime Minister Edi Rama’s business friends.
Brace yourself for what could be another scorching summer in Greece as scientists are anxious that a warm winter - the warmest January recorded - and climate change will continue to bring weather anomalies.
Mykonos’ run has been going on for a long time, bringing hordes of tourists, but it’s being cut down by its reputation for being rowdy, expensive, overcrowded and gouging diners while businesses evade taxes.