MUSIC, POETRY & DANCE

DISCOVER ARTCINEMA HYDRA 2025

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A COMMUNITY OF INDIVIDUALS DRIVEN BY SHARED PASSION

During ArtCinema Hydra and throughout the year, we see ourselves as creative catalysts - providing the support, resources, and infrastructure to collaborate with artists and creatives on ideas and projects at any stage of development, across all artistic disciplines.

Just as Hydra has long been a haven for international painters, it is equally a refuge for writers, poets, dancers and musicians, both local and global.

The island’s creative legacy includes renowned figures such as Leonard Cohen, Brice Marden, Charmian Clift, George Johnston, Giorgos Seferis, and Henry Miller and we are proud to honour that enduring spirit.

Over the course of the three-day event, we will highlight both Hydra’s unique cultural heritage and the richness of Greek and international artistic voices.

KYRAN DANIEL

AUSTRALIAN GUITARIST, COMPOSER & PRODUCER

Joining us for a special eight-day music residency is ArtCinema Music Patron Kyran Daniel -  guitarist, composer, producer, and musical director. Kyran’s career began on the world stage, performing alongside Australian Grammy Winner Tommy Emmanuel. His debut album, Per Se, became a landmark in the acoustic guitar world, leading to his full-scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he studied under some of the foremost professors in contemporary songwriting and production.

Following Berklee, Kyran built a stellar reputation as a songwriter and producer for leading Australian artists including G Flip, Gretta Ray, and Kingswood. His wide-ranging musical sensibility and exceptional artistry quickly cemented his place among Australia’s most sought-after studio talents.

Now based in Rome, Kyran returns to Hydra for a special residency and will join us over the ArtCinema weekend as our honoured guest. A celebrated artist whose work bridges sound, storytelling, and place, Kyran will present a live listening session of his latest album ‘Like The Night Itself’ - an intimate performance not to be missed, made all the more poignant as he recorded a significant portion of this album at Hydra’s Old Carpet Factory recording studios just two years ago.

ABHAY DEOL

FILM & MUSIC PATRON

Acclaimed Indian movie star and producer Abhay Deol is not only bringing his latest film, Bun Tikki, to ArtCinema Hydra as a Film Patron, but is also generously joining us as a Music Patron. This time, he’ll be stepping behind the decks - just for fun - as a guest DJ on opening night. Recently, Abhay delighted fans with a surprise guest DJ appearance at a nightclub in Gurugram. Beyond film and music, he is also deeply passionate about the wellness space - more on that soon.

ALEKOS ROUPAS

GREEK PERCUSSIONIST

Born in Ioannina, Alekos started studying Greek traditional percussion instruments at an early age, as well as participating in live performances – including festivals of traditional Greek dance. He took drum lessons at the Municipal Conservatory of Ioannina. He continued his studies and graduated from the department of traditional and modern percussion at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory, studying with Professor Petros Kourtis. He also studied privately and participated in workshops with many significant artists such as Alex Acuna, Eguie Castrillo, Richie Gajate Garcia, Yshai Afterman, Misirli Ahmet, and Petro Pablo Rodriguez Mireles.

JULIJA CASTELLUCCI

MUSIC PERFORMANCE ARTIST

Julija Kasteluči returns to ArtCinema as a sonic patron. She is a conceptual and performance artist whose work spans the fields of time-based and spatial art through sonic, visual, and written forms. Her immersive approach integrates sound, voice, video, and spatial interventions. The veracity of her vocal expression stems from the distinctive timbre and frequency of her voice, through which she creates abstract emotional drawings, establishing communication with the audience in a continuous search for situational context. She explores the sculptural and emotional dimensions of sound, shaping situations as entities with singular contexts, compact structures, and ephemeral existence. 

A STATEMENT FROM JULIJA ABOUT HER ARTISTIC PRACTICE:

My practice is a relationship to the ways of presenting what I want to express, and the modes of expression within that practice are not fixed - in fact, they are fluid. One could say it is a practice within a practice, in which my relation to traditional three-dimensional exhibition practices is in constant redefinition, while I am in continuous search for the situational. In searching for the situational, I extract the essence, abstract it, and transform it into a form that is placed within a specific context, time, and space. Yet sometimes the very act of searching nullifies both time and space, becoming a de-contextualized situation - or rather, one with its own singular context, which at times may not be entirely legible.

A VETERAN OF TROY

PERFORMANCE AT GARDENIA OPEN-AIR THEATRE

A visceral one-man play in development.

As well as presenting his opening night film Dirty Boy, award-winning writer/director Doug Rao will also unveil a 40-minute excerpt of his one-man play in development, A Veteran of Troy.

Reimagining the ancient Trojan War through the eyes of a modern soldier, A Veteran of Troy fuses Homeric myth with contemporary trauma to confront masculinity, grief, violence, and memory.

Part spoken-word performance, part shattered myth, the play merges the fury of Achilles, the cunning of Odysseus, and the pride of Agamemnon with the fractured psyche of a homeless veteran, wandering through the alleys of his own mind in search of himself.

From award-winning writer/director Rao — whose feature film Dirty Boy screened at Cannes — and an actor known for the Royal Shakespeare Company, BAFTA-winning The Bill, and the Emmy-nominated Netflix drama Zero Chill.

A poetic performance of mythic fire and mortal tenderness.

This is a free event, and everyone is welcome, so come take a seat and be inspired but please note that late arrivals will not be admitted once the performance has started.

YIANNIS AND PANAGIOTIS GAVALAS

HYDRA POET & MUSICIANS

ArtCinema is honoured to present father-and-son musicians Yiannis and Panagiotis Gavalas, whose deep knowledge of Hydra’s traditional music has inspired much of this year’s creativity.

Yiannis Gavalas -  a former shipping captain, marine teacher, and poet - has long been a devoted guardian of Hydra’s musical heritage.  He has championed traditional gatherings for decades, including the Almond Festival, where musicians perform the island’s cherished songs. Yiannis also vividly recalls Sophia Loren’s arrival in 1956 for the filming of Boy on a Dolphin, and is known for his moving rendition of “Τι είναι αυτό που το λένε αγάπη” (What Is This That They Call Love?). Born on Hydra, he served in the merchant marines before teaching at the island’s School for Merchant Captains. A prolific author, he has published seven books, with his latest celebrating Hydra’s achievements.

Panagiotis Gavalas, a beloved local pharmacist and accomplished bouzouki player, continues the family’s rich musical tradition.

Photo Credit: Issey Gladston

JOHN L. HOLGERSON

For the past 30 years, John L. Holgerson has resided for at least a month or two each year in Hydra, inspired by Leonard Cohen, writing poetry and reflecting. He returns to Hydra as an ArtCinema Poet Patron to co-host the Poetry Breakfast and a surprise festival film about the life of a poet. 

His third and most recent poetry collection, Convictions of the Heart, includes a heartfelt tribute to Hydra and reflections on other places and people. John’s other two poetry collections are Broken Borders and Unnecessary Tattoo. He continues to write and publish poetry. 

Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, John studied poetry and law at the University of Notre Dame. Inspired by criminal law professor Robert Blakey and civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, he joined the Massachusetts Defenders Committee after graduation. As a trial and appellate attorney, John handled serious felony cases and argued before Massachusetts’ highest courts. These experiences shape his novel-in- progress, The Privilege.

POET

BARRY GUY AND MAYA HOMBURGER

Barry Guy is an innovative bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of jazz improvisation, chamber and orchestral performance and solo recitals is the outcome both of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication.

Maya Homburger originally moved to England to join various ancient music ensembles and became one of the leaders of John Eliot Gardiner's "English Baroque Soloists".

Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy - on the occasion of an extended concert tour with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music in 1988 - she has devoted her time developing her own personal style on the baroque violin as well as managing Improvised and New Music projects and running her own CD label Maya Recordings.

The idea to perform baroque solo works in the context of free improvised music and newly commissioned pieces sparked off the Homburger/Guy Duo and together Maya Homburger and Barry Guy have given concerts in many major Jazz, New Music and Baroque Music Festivals all over Europe and in Canada.

FRANK VAN DEN BRINK

Frank van den Brink studied at the Conservatoria of Amsterdam and The Hague, graduating with honors from both academies. At the age of 20 van den Brink was appointed solo-clarinetist of the North Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He currently holds the solo clarinetist position with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Frank is also a member of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the van Swieten Society.

As a ‘guest principal’ van den Brink has worked with many orchestra’s worldwide, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de France, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern.
As a soloist van den Brink has performed and recorded with many orchestras in the Netherlands and Europe, including the Radio Philharmonic, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the North Netherlands Philharmonic, European Chamber Orchestra Per Musica, the Orchestra of Tblisi and the Radio Chamber Philharmonie.

DISCOVER MORE

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