This concert celebrates the life and work of Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925–2021), a prominent figure of Greek art music who successfully married poetry with music for more than 50 years, creating an aesthetic product of high artistic and emotional value. Much of the poetry used in his music comes from the work of Nobel laureates Odysseas Elytis and Giorgos Seferis as well as other highly esteemed Greek poets of the 20th century.

Mikis wrote music that carried the feelings, hopes, aspirations and troubles of an entire generation in a small country that had just gone through World War II, a civil war and a dictatorship. In those dark times, his artful musical creations were not simply an escape, they embodied the yearning of an entire people. They sang of a society that was seeking inspiration and freedom, and they mobilized and rallied people to struggle for social justice and democracy.