NEW YORK – Honoring their cultural commitment to the community, Sounds of Cyprus is performing a free pop-up concert at Gantry Plaza State Park on the Long Island City waterfront on Thursday, April 6, 5-7 PM.

Sounds of Cyprus is a Cypriot orchestra co-founded by Elena Chris and Peter Douskalis in New York City. The group performs the traditional music of Cyprus in varying orchestrations and styles that both consciously honor the time period of composition and period instruments as well as perform with a modern approach. Elena Chris, vocalist, front person, and Creative Director of the group, sings the traditional songs in the Cypriot dialect of Greek, as well as in Turkish for songs that contain lyrics in both languages. Peter Douskalis, Music Director, plays the laouto, oud, mandolin, and guitar in the group, switching between the proper instrument as needed for the authentic and modern orchestration of the pieces. Other instruments of the group are violin/viola played by Alex Tasopoulos), contrabass by Erikos Vlesmas, and percussion by Mark Katsaounis.

The concert will take place at the main plaza of Gantry Plaza State Park, next to the Queens Public Library at Hunters Point, on Thursday, April 6, 5-7 PM. In case of inclement weather, the concert has a rain date of Tuesday, April 25, at the same time.

The concert is taking place with the approval of New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation.