MY URBAN PIANO Diary 19
Episode 9: Agios o Theos
The final episode of MY URBAN PIANO is dedicated Athens, which was to the first European Capital of Culture back in 1985. “Agios o Theos” is a Greek prayer that I had set to music for three voices a cappella in 2005 during my summer vacation on the beautiful island of Patmos. When I decided to bring MY URBAN PIANO to Athens, this song of mine immediately came to mind. Not only is this piece very near and dear to my heart because of the wonderful memories that I associate with it, but I also feel that my simple tune catches the spirit of this Greek prayer quite well.
The Luxembourgish Embassy of Luxembourg in Athens was very helpful with the organization of this video shoot. First they brought me in touch with the Pedagogiki primary school which was to supply not only the piano for episode 9, but also the young singers who became the stars of this video. Olya Eleftheriou, the kid’s teacher, taught them my song and asked her colleague Apostolis Markakis to participate in the production. Apostolis, a Byzantine singer, thus contributed the original Greek version of the prayer for my recording.
The director of “Agios o Theos” would be David Draad, with whom I had already collaborated on episodes 3 (Joy) and 4 (Rover of Love) of MY URBAN PIANO. David is brilliant at his job, and he has become a great friend. For this episode he came up with the idea to shoot the entire video in slow motion, which meant that we had to perform the piece in double speed.
The slow motion effect is fantastic. It conveys the grandeur and the spirituality of the music and the locations in an almost surreal manner.
After many emails and phone calls, I finally met Olya and the children in June 2018, when I travelled to Athens with David Draad and Morris Kemp (who was to shoot the ‘making of’ video, since my regular collaborator Dan Schank was not available during that period). We met at Arion Music Studio to record the song together. For the first time in my career (and hopefully the last time!) I was not completely ready with my composition. I had started to arrange it for voices and piano, but the accompaniment was not finished by the time we went to the studio. So I completed the piece in between recording sessions at the studio, and luckily everything turned out great. I am so happy about this piece, the lovely singing of the kids and Apostolis’ moving solo. Our sound engineer Nikos Pitloglou did a fantastic job with the mixing, which had to be finished the following day, so that we could use the audio as a playback track during the video shoot.
“Agios o Theos” was shot at several spectacular locations. The beautiful piano (painted in blue with light clouds and touches of gold) was brought to Mount Lycabettus, to the Pyraeus area, to the majestic Agios Dionysios Areopagitis Church and finally, to Cape Sounion where we witnessed the most magical sunset. It’s a place that seems out of this world.
The atmosphere on the set was great and light-hearted, and despite some hours of heavy rain, our mood was joyful. After all the scenes were shot, David Draad flew back to his home in Denmark where he had two (!) days and nights to finish the editing and color grading of “Agios o Theos” since the premiere was scheduled only a few days after the shooting in Athens. David surpassed himself. In my opinion “Agios o Theos” is one of the most beautiful music videos ever. It catches the beauty of Greece and the spirituality of the prayer.
“Agios o Theos” is a worthy final episode of a huge project — MY URBAN PIANO — which led me to nine different European Capitals of Culture in eight countries. Looking back, I am deeply grateful for this exceptional musical adventure that allowed me to share my music with so many people around the world. Music brings people together and spreads peace. It heals wounds and gives us strength. Music can change the world. My mission to reach as many people as possible has only begun with MY URBAN PIANO, and there is so much more to come. Let’s stay connected via social media (or my newsletter) and hopefully meet in person at a concert or during one of my future projects. God bless.
Pianist and composer David Ianni from Luxembourg has become well-known for his project MY URBAN PIANO for which a series of nine music videos was produced in different European Capitals of Culture. An original composition was dedicated to each city and performed on an artistically designed piano. The pianos were donated to institutions of the cities. The album of the same name was published in late 2018. Join the journey and follow David on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; and sign up for his newsletter. Watch David’s videos on his YouTube channel.
