Welcome to the first issue of Ákou! – the newsletter of the Pano Hora Ensemble. Ákou, the Greek word for "listen" or "pay attention," captures the spirit of what we’re aiming to do here: invite you to tune in more closely as we take deeper dives into our projects, events, themes, and the people behind them—going beyond what you’ll find in our blog entries or liner notes.
Forthcoming issues of Ákou! will explore – among other things – “The Paradox of Beauty” that inspired our just released album, Evlogía; our programming plans for the next year; the creative journey of our good friend, Michael Haldas, whose poetry is featured on Evlogía, the backstories for some of the tracks on the album, and much more.
The launch of Ákou! reflects our expanding ambitions as an ensemble. We accomplished a lot this past year: publishing two albums with DaVinci Classics (Old World, New World, and Evlogía), recording the new opera, Gethsemane, and recording several tracks for another album, Phrygian Gold.
We also continued the process of expanding and formalizing our structure, management, and outreach by hiring an agent, Christos Makridis, to guide our efforts, by securing the help of the wonderfully creative team at Biangle Studio to redesign and expand our new website (check it out!), and by filing for 501(c)3 status, which will make it possible for us to approach foundations and individuals that are potentially interested in supporting our work. I’m very grateful to Ginevra Petrucci and Tylor Thomas, who have been instrumental this past year in planning our programming, identifying talent, and guiding our direction, and I am pleased that they have agreed to continue to serve as Co-Directors of Artistic Planning.
The scale of our projects is also growing. Our March 2026 concert in Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City, will feature two world premieres of works for orchestra: the one-act opera, Gethsemane, and the Concerto Grosso Laїko. In keeping with that larger scale, we sought out an experienced conductor to lead our upcoming recordings and performances, and we are thrilled to report that Maestro Mark Shapiro will conduct the recording session of Concerto Grosso Laїko in June 2025. Anthony Bracewell has agreed to serve as concertmaster.
Of course, amidst all this change, the important things haven’t changed. We are a group of musicians who value our friendships with each other, who share a commitment to creating beautiful sounds together, and who are willing to try new things. It is hard to express how grateful I am to be able to work with this extraordinary group of people.
-Charles Calomiris
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