Workshops for kids and adults

Alternative Stage Founding Donor

 Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Children’s workshop
Little Body Musicians
Designed and conducted by: Natasha Handa-Martin
GNO VIP Lounge – SNFCC
Starts at: 17.00 (age group: 7-10), 18.00 (age group: 10-12)

Body music, also known as body percussion or body drumming, is considered the earliest form of music on the planet. Before the construction of the first musical instruments, humans expressed rhythm by clapping their hands and feet, creating music through their own bodies.

Body music has now become a modern genre of high artistic value and a very enjoyable and inclusive teaching method intended to familiarize children with rhythm, polyrhythms, and other complex musical concepts. In the Little Body Musicians workshop, children will use their bodies to produce rhythms and work in pairs and groups to collaboratively create a rhythmic score through their common percussion instrument!

Participation in the workshop is free. Participants will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications can be submitted exclusively via the form you will find here until 6 June.

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African percussion workshop
Djembe Stories
Designed and conducted by: Antonis Papadopoulos
With the participation of Anna Karamitsou
GNO Alternative Stage – SNFCC • Starts at: 14.00

Musician and percussion teacher Antonis Papadopoulos will lead a comprehensive workshop on the African percussion instruments djembe and dundun. The workshop will take us on a journey through stories about rhythms, songs, the sounds and techniques of the instruments, improvisation, and polyrhythms, leading us to the present, all while playing and learning in a joyful and communicative manner. It will showcase the music and dance culture born in the villages of the Western African regions that has now spread not only across the entire African continent, but also throughout the world.

The workshop is aimed at individuals who have never been involved in music or percussion before, as well as professional musicians of different instruments, actors, or dancers who want to explore this particular percussion family and its associated rhythmology, or delve into the concept of rhythm and polyrhythm. Joining Antonis Papadopoulos will be dancer and dance teacher Anna Karamitsou, who will focus on the connection between percussion and dance.

Free admission

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Workshop
Percussion Instruments In Greece and the Balkans
Designed and conducted by: Vangelis Karipis
GNO Alternative Stage – SNFCC • Starts at: 12.30

Percussion virtuoso Vangelis Karipis is coming to the GNO Alternative Stage to lead a workshop that focuses on the role of percussion in Greek traditional music and the music styles of the Balkans. Through both practical and theoretical approaches, participants will explore rhythmology, techniques, and solos on drum and percussion sets, as well as the davul, darbuka, and riq.

Free admission

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Workshop
Grooving the Balkans
Designed and conducted by: Srdjan Ivanovic
GNO Alternative Stage – SNFCC • Starts at: 12.00

Balkan folklore is a broad concept. Although traditional Romanian music may be quite different from that of island Greece, for example, there are many musical characteristics that bind them together. Another non-musical unifying factor is the richness of the shared musical legacy and its significance within the culture of Balkan populations.

In the Grooving the Balkans seminar, drummer and composer Srdjan Ivanovic will explore a series of creative ways of executing Balkan asymmetrical rhythms, which can lead to new possibilities for incorporating them into diverse musical styles. The insights Ivanovic acquired, primarily through his musical collaborations, and further developed through his own ideas, will be employed to activate participants, assisting both performers and composers in enhancing, personalizing, and applying this knowledge. The seminar is designed for drummers and percussionists, but it is also open to all musicians interested in expanding their rhythmic vocabulary and understanding of rhythm.

Free admission

Friday, 13 June 2025

Orchestral Percussion Workshop by OPERcussion
Designed and conducted by: OPERcussion
GNO Alternative Stage – SNFCC • Starts at: 11.00

The members of the distinguished percussion ensemble OPERcussion from the Bavarian State Opera will lead a workshop dedicated to analysing orchestral percussion techniques and their application to symphonic repertoire. The workshop will focus on the following instruments: snare drum, tambourine, cymbals, xylophone and glockenspiel.

Free admission

The production “2nd PERCUSSION FESTIVAL OF THE GNO ALTERNATIVE STAGE” is part of the GNO Alternative Stage’s unit of programming titled “CYCLE OF THEMATIC CONCERTS”, which falls under the ACT “FESTIVAL EVENTS OF THE GNO ALTERNATIVE STAGE 2024-2025” » (MIS 6002467) with code 2024ΕΠ08570049 (Priority: “Fostering regional social cohesion through the enhancement of mechanisms and infrastructure to support employment, education, health care and socioeconomic inclusion” of the programme “Attica 2021-2027) and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.