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Arts & Entertainment

Get To The Greek at the Township Library

Performance of Greek music scheduled for Saturday, July 17

Elena Louizou and two musical guests are set to perform a medley of Greek music at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Pio Costa Auditorium next to the Montville Township Public Library.

The show, titled "Elliniki: Greek Music and Song," introduces Greek culture through its through musical performance.

Alexa Metrick, the grants, technology and marketing specialist for the library, said they are very excited to have Louizou perform.           

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"In addition to enjoying the music," Metrick said, "audience members will get some insight into the history of these pieces and of how they relate to Greek culture. Elena plans to perform an entire range of Greek music, from the more familiar to the more obscure, and sprinkle the performance with a bit of background information, so this program will be educational as well as entertaining."

The performance will include songs by Miki Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Mimis Blessas, Xarhakos, Nana Mouskouri, renditions of island dances, Misirlou and greek-cypriot songs.

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Louizou said they picked these songs because they were written by  well-known composers.

"Theodoraki's music is in the film Zorba the Greek and Hadjidaki's music is in the film 'Never on Sunday,'" she said. "We will also play 'ti einai auto pou to lene agapi,' a song that Sofia Loren sung in the film The Boy on The Dolphin. We will also play folk music from some places that are dances.  One of the other songs is 'misirlou' which has east sound in it. It's going to be a program of old favorites and popular tunes. Some are just instrumental. We will also have some Greek-Cypriot folk songs too."

Louizou, a current Montville resident, is a music teacher and substitute teacher in Montville. She graduated from Montclair State University with a master's degree in Music Performance. Louizou also teaches guitar lessons at her studio. She will sing and play the guitar during the performance on Saturday.

Joining Louizou on stage will be her friends and fellow musicians Yianni and Taso. They will be playing the keyboard and the Greek instrument the bouzouki (similar to a violin or mandolin), respectively.

The Pio Cost Auditorium is attached to the library, located on 90 Horseneck Road.

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