Polymnia, a conversation

February 25, 2023
10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
via Zoom

To RSVP, visit https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIrcOiqrzIoGd1cPmL-9eZcPtHDIShg-gpG

As a follow up to the world premiere of POLYMNIA, a chamber opera by Theodosia Roussos, join us for a Zoom conversation with the composer and several of the artists who created this wonderful production. They’ll share stories and insights from the unique process behind bringing Theodosia’s family history to the stage and answer your questions.

Hosted by Sharon Gerstel, Director, UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture

Panelists/Artists: 
Theodosia Roussos, Composer/Librettist/Oboist/Performer
Diana Wyenn, Director/Dramaturg/Producer
Natalie Buickians, Performer
Peter Kazaras, Dramaturg
Michele Patzakis, Performer

About POLYMNIA
POLYMNIA, described by Opera News as “haunting and beautiful,” is a debut experimental chamber opera by Theodosia Roussos which tells the story of a woman who responds with resilience and self-invention to the disruption of her life caused by war and trauma, and how her experience echoes through time.

Drawing from Sappho fragments of Sappho’s poetry as well as four generations of private family writings and oral history, composer and performer Theodosia Roussos shares the story of her great-grandmother Polymnia Athanasiadis Pappas, a young woman whose family was expelled from its Thracian village by the Ottoman Turks during the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Roussos draws influence from her Greek Cypriot American background and weaves elements of Byzantine and Greek folk music into the score.

Presented on January 21-22, 2023 at UCLA’s Little Theater in both Greek and English, Polymnia reveals the very personal and also political experience of diaspora—what is lost, what is retained, and what cannot be forgotten.

For inquiries, please contact hellenic@humnet.ucla.edu.