Greek-New Zealand composer John Psathas was over the moon with the resounding success of his ambitious Nea Zeibekiko featuring Athens-based clarino-player Manos Achalinotopoulos and percussionist Petros Kourtis at the Auckland Arts Festival in March. Taking up the entire evening program, the new purpose-written fifteen-part work encompassed a kaleidoscopic variety of traditional Greek music, from that composed for a fifth-century-B.C. ode by Pindar to the final frenzied maenads dance by Psathas himself, on the way including renditions of plangent old Greek songs (To Ponemeno Stithos Mou from the islands and Yanni, To Mandili Sou from Epirus), “Tecmessa’s Lament” from a version of the tragedy Aias, of late antiquity, a sober Byzantine Doxastiko, and of course a Hymn to the Muse.
Appropriately, right towards the end, Anthony Neonakis from Wellington, lithe as winged Ermis, leapt up on stage from the auditorium and between violins and footlights, took up dancing the zeibekiko, the intensely expressive, contemplative solo dance usually reserved for men.
 A standing ovation raised the roof of the well-filled town hall. A string of encores followed. Stimulated by the enthusiastic response, the two musicians flown in from Greece seemed tireless, clearly benefiting from the sensitive conducting of Hamish McKeich, experienced at presenting contemporary music and, as Psathas intended, ever-ready to allow the soloists room for improvisation. Fine backing by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra was an essential ingredient of the event.
The work is a fresh take on the original Zeibekiko which Psathas composed on commission for the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble in Amsterdam in 2004. The Auckland concert was filmed. “My vision is to have this concert tour in many countries. With Manos and Petros I feel we have a team that can present the best of what Greece has to offer in the international concert arena. We are hoping to perform the work again in 2012, either in New Zealand or Greece, but this is tentative and the planning is in the early stages.”
Born of northern Greek parents in New Zealand in 1966, now professor at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, Psathas is noted for cutting-edge contemporary compositions. He enjoyed a world-wide audience for the music he composed and arranged for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.