Follow your art gallery invites you to the opening of its first summer-season exhibition, “Fragments of Kythera”. The exhibition presents a wide range of work created by 10 members of the Allcomers String Orchestra, working in the main with materials found lying around in Kapsali.
The exhibition poster features a photograph taken by the team, depicting elements connected to their stay on the island of Kythera; the stone floor in the studio in Vardas which they use as an art studio together with discarded bamboo fencing organised in a stave symbolising the beginning of a musical composition.
The Allcomers Orchestra is a multinational ensemble with members this year coming from the UK, Ireland, Germany and Norway. For the past 18 years it has organised a week of rehearsals in preparation for a public concert on the Saturday at the end of their stay. Rehearsals are held morning and evening throughout the week in the Zeidoros amphitheatre. The final concert this year will be in Syndesmos in Chora, starting at 8:00pm. For two of the pieces of music, the Allcomers Orcestra will be joined by members of the Kythira Community String Ensemble, established by Allcomers Music in 2019. On Wednesday 31st May at 8:00pm, in the Philarmoniki in Potamos, there is a concert given by the tutors of the Allcomers Orchestra; Florence Cooke and Danaï Loukadi (violins), Ruth Gibson (viola) and Abel Selacoe (cello). We can promise a stunning programme of chamber music presented by some of the finest musicians in Europe.
The Allcomers Orchestra initiative arose out of Chris Shurety’s involvement in the East London Late Starters Orchestra, which he set up in 1983. Recognising music making as a fundamental human need, the aim was (and remains) to enable anyone to participate in music as an active musician, an aim achieved by providing structured teaching of string instruments. The Kythera Community String Ensemble has been established with precisely the same aims and, accordingly is open to all those living and working on Kythera.
