The "Odysseys" in Greece

The workshop, led by the musician Sonia Wieder – Atherton, will take place in the context of the Big Bang Festival 4: the European festival of music for young people which transforms the Onassis Stegi into a musical labyrinth full of adventures.

“My desire is for these children to understand and feel the path they can take to tell a story that would be their own. The starting point would be my “Odyssey”. I would tell them how I conceived, crafted and invented it. Then I would suggest that they follow a similar path. I would ask them to help me choose chapters from it and create their own. At the same time we would search for and record sounds, using all the raw material they could find: narratives (their own or those of their circle, their family), sounds from the Internet, cello sounds, and more. Then we would start to work with this material.

My aim would be to make them aware of how we can write in sound. Using the sounds of nature, the city, musical instruments… They could learn to work this raw material, guiding them towards being the authors of their own narrative. I believe that this could help to bring them an important idea, that of not just submitting to their surroundings but of using them to express themselves. This will help them to develop a sense of form (the rise and fall of dramatic tension) editing, awareness of listening. They would also start to feel just how stimulating it is to mix different disciplines. In short, my desire would be for their imagination to open up, to expand their curiosity. Along the way, of course, they would also make friends with the cello.” Sonia Wieder-Atherton

"The Odysseys" (creation for cello solo & soundtrack)

“I would like the Odyssey to unite words that have been scattered around the earth.

I want to meet people. Alone or in their community, With friends or family, Young or old. Children. Take time with them.

Share the Odyssey with them. Play the pieces for them. Let them hear the soundtrack Tell them the thirteen adventures.

Ask them to tell their narratives. What does storm mean to them? Cries? Shouts? Screaming? Adio? Or this man weeping?

I want to hear their response. The texture of their voices, their rhythm, their accents. Then record them.

Then choose. Which narratives? Where will they fit into the soundtrack of the Odyssey? Amid the churning waves? As a duo with me and the cello? In the murmur of a distant town?

When the Odyssey is finally ready, it will be their version. For them. For the place they came from. With them, my cello will sing.”