Poetry & Music Collaboration
with the Greek Sophisti-Pop Trio StarWound
On October 25, 2024, the Greek sophisi-pop trio StarWound presented their ‘Interiors Project’ at MIU.
StarWound is a sophisti-pop trio based in Athens, Greece. Their music fuses a cabaret ambience with elements of EDM and synth rock genres. The concert was a collaborative music and poetry event featuring StarWound, poet and MIU MFA program director Nynke Passi, and students of MIU’s Creative Writing programs. This performance was part of a multi-university tour in collaboration with prominent contemporary US poets, featuring music inspired by Nynke Passi’s poem ‘The Opposite of Love’ and students’ workshopped poems on the theme of ‘Interiors.’ At the heart of this tour is an acknowledgment of our communal interior spaces and isolation during the recent pandemic years.
The Anglophone Music Group “StarWound” flies from Greece and performs in six cities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, presenting new songs in collaboration with prominent poetry professors, students of the universities and poets of the local communities. They are also stopping at M.I.U. to work with our MFA students and undergraduate English and Cinematic Arts and New Media Students for a lyric workshop, plus they are offering a concert at Café Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa, on Friday October 25 starting at 7:30 PM CT.
“Interiors” represents StarWound’s survey on the lyrics of contemporary US-based poets. The goal is to provide musical accompaniment to original poetic compositions provided by each of the collaborating institutions and to present these songs in a multifaceted and multi-institutional concert program, based on the thematic concept of “Interiors.”
The recent pandemic period, with its long quarantines and repeated lockdowns, led to prolonged periods of isolation, thus creating a major social disruption. People were forced to stay behind closed doors and maintained personal contact mainly through their computers and cellphones. Stories of domestic violence, social disruption and individual anxiety attacks were increased significantly during this devastating crisis. These stories, and many others, share a common feature: “Interiors.” This project invites poets to interpret their own “Interiors” experiences.
One professor from each of the selected Universities has contributed to the project with a poem, which becomes part of the concert program in all the tour’s stops. In addition, students of each university or local poets will participate in the concert. They will write poems based on the theme of the project and do the recitation of their own poems on stage, while the trio will play a musical background influenced by their poems. Moreover, StarWound would make a workshop, in which they will work together with the poets on a collaborative poem, composing new music together with them. This workshop will show the importance of rhythm and dynamics and how the two forms of art –poetry and music – could influence each other
The first part of “Interiors” took place in five US universities, in four different States of the Southeast, in October 2023. More specifically, StarWound performed in UWF (FL), GSU and Berry College (GA), MUW (MS) and Miles College (AL) and they collaborated with professors/poets like Sandra Meek, Kendall Dunkelberg and Jonathan Fink.
For the second edition of Interiors, StarWound received poems from professors Amy Ash, Carmella Braninger, Brenda Cardenas, Chris Forhan, Jennifer Moore and Nynke Passi. The Greek trio will perform also songs from their three albums that deal with the theme of the project, as well as songs-poems from the first part of ‘Interiors’.
About “StarWound”
StarWound is an alternative ten-year-old Anglophone band based in Athens, Greece. It consists of three musicians: Konstantina Stavropoulou (vocals, synthesizer), Petros Bouras (piano, synthesizer), and Dimitris Azorakos (drums). The group’s songs reflect upon the philosophical and social dimensions of the human condition. StarWound’s debut album, “Miles to Walk,” was released in September 2015, and provided a musical reflection of the Greek financial and social crisis.
Since its debut, StarWound has performed in various Festivals including the following: Eurosonic (Netherlands), CLAE Festival (Luxembourg), Colora (Belgium), Culturescapes (Switzerland), "River Party” and “Aisxyleia” (Greece). In addition, the group has appeared in many cities in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, North Macedonia and Luxembourg, and has given concerts at important music venues such as the “Sounds Jazz Club”, “Jazzcafe Dizzy”, “Jamboree” and “Blues-Sphere”.Many of StarWound’s songs have been featured on various major FM radio stations in Greece, and elsewhere in Europe, including: “Pepper Radio” (Greece), “World Radio” (Switzerland) “Ara City” (Luxembourg) and “Alma Radio” (Belgium). StarWound was ranked among the top 150 bands at the "YourBand" contest sponsored by the National Greek Radio and Television Company (ERT).
In 2018, the band released its 2nd studio album, “So Wrong,” in collaboration with the internationally renowed mezzo-soprano, Alexandra Gravas. This album included eight new songs.
In 2021, StarWound released their latest single, “Rose,” which received significant airplay on the radio. One month later, they collaborated with the Ballet of the Greek National Opera in “Dancing Cloud”, a video inspired by the sudden loss of the Company’s principal dancer, Sasha Neskov. In October 2023, they made their first tour in the USA, performing their project ‘Interiors’ and in January 2024, StarWound released its third album under the title “What do you see?”, which was produced by Ted Gaier and the first single ‘Insane’, was the reason for their return on the major radio stations in Greece.
“The StarWound band members had wide open hearts and helped us all put our poems to music. They let me know it was OK to express myself. Wow!”
The participating poets from six universities. For the second edition of Interiors, StarWound received poems from professors Amy Ash, Carmella Braninger, Brenda Cardenas, Chris Forhan, Jennifer Moore and Nynke Passi.
The Concert at Café Paradiso
Below you can hear the performance of Nynke’s poem, “The Opposite of Love.”
Below a slideshow of the Café Paradiso performance:
