SALON MUSICALE TO BENEFIT PAOI
The PAOI (Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute) Women’s Board Southern California celebrated the oncoming of Lent with a rousing Apokries (Mardi Gras/Carnavale) celebration at the beautiful home of Helen Lambros of San Marino.
The March 16th Salon Musicale featured PAOI member Michele Patzakis Prappas, lyric soprano of San Marino and Neal Desby of the USC Thornton School of Music.
Ms. Prappas has sung leading roles in opera houses in Europe and the United States. A national winner of the Loren L. Zachary Awards, she has also served as judge and artistic director for their annual Viennese program. Mr. Desby was conductor and lead orchestrator on the movie, Beautiful Creatures, starring Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson and lead orchestrator and arranger on the video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
The program featured the world premiere presentation of an American Song Cycle arranged by Mr. Desby and performed by Ms. Prappas as well as French and Greek folk songs also performed by Prappas and accompanied at the piano by Desby and Helen Lambros respectively.
Committee members included Sophia Angelos, Christine Haidos, Rosalind Halikis, Helen Lambros, Melanie O’Regan, Susan Patzakis, Michele Prappas and Melina Pyle.
Proceeds of the event will benefit the PAOI Institute located in Berkeley, CA. The Institute is affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) also in Berkeley.
