Connect By Music: Israel

A Greek Love Song

The Castle of Mytilene, Lesvos. The Connect by Music orchestra consists of students who came to Greece as refugees and immigrants, sometimes unaccompanied.

Israel came from Congo chose to play Rita Ritaki, a famous Greek love song. This video has reached 224K views on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/connectbymusic/videos/487844908430928/

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Dyar means Homes (Misirlou)

Music as a shelter for people from different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. Music as a home. Music as a journey between homes. Work-in-progress documentary film, directed by Nikolaos Stampoulopoulos.

The story focuses on the Greek tour of the Dutch-based band “Dyar”, which consists of: Nawras Altaky (Syria / vocals, ud), Lucas Dols (Netherlands / double bass), Modar Salama (Syria / percussions), Gino Bombrini (Netherlands / percussions) and Sofia Spinoula (Greece / vocals). https://www.facebook.com/dyarband/ In August 2018, the band performed in refugee camps, both in Athens (Elaionas) and in Lesvos (Kara Tepe, Moria). Together with a concert held at the Secretariat General for the Aegean and Island Policy, all performances in Lesvos were organised by the Dutch NGO “Connect by Music”, which teaches music to refugee children and young adults, provides the necessary equipment and involves professional music teachers and music therapists from the immediate surrounding area. https://www.connectbymusic.com/

Additional footage in Connect by Music promotional video: MUSIC IS OUR LANGUAGEhttps://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=769885750041934

If there is a God

This is the longest and most complete of our documentaries yet. Its story takes place in Amsterdam and Utrecht, from 2011 till 2014, following Sofia from being a newcomer in the country to daring to make her dreams come true.

Directed by Nikolaos Stampoulopoulos, Founder and Chairman of New Diaspora Foundation.

The documentary Sofia Spinoula: if there is a God premiered at the Greek Diaspora Conference in Oxford University on Friday, June 22nd 2018.

This work is protected under a Creative Commons license (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives).