December 2005 Newsletter

In this issue:

1. New CD ‘George from Athens to Beijing’ **nominated** for Best World Music in Canada
2. CTV presents CHAIRMAN GEORGE – Sunday, December 18, 1-2 PM
3. CHAIRMAN GEORGE a hit at Montreal film festival in November
4. Back from Fall tour in CHINA : Beijing, Yichang and Nanjing
5. Watch out for ‘Chairman George and the Ministers’ : ready to rock in 2006

Details:
1)
New CD ‘George from Athens to Beijing’ Nominated for Best World Music in Canada for 2005 Canadian Folk Music Awards (inaugural event) Saturday, December 10th MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION – Gatineau, Québec, www.canadianfolkmusicawards.ca

Produced by George Sapounidis and Jeremy Moyer, this CD consists of Greek and Chinese songs with dialogue exerpts from the CTV/BBC television documentary ‘Chairman George’ . A fine gift for the Christmas season. CD available by contacting george.sapounidis@rogers.com or at www.eyesteelfilm.com

2)
CTV presents CHAIRMAN GEORGE
Sunday, December 18, 1-2 PM *** repeat national broadcast ***

/ Daniel Cross; Mila Aung-Thwin / Québec / 2005 / english, mandarin /

Description: In Canada, he is a statistician who lives with his mother. In China, he is a pop star. George Sapounidis defies every effort at categorization. The latest film from Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin is a delightful portrait of this zany Greek-Canadian troubadour who regularly makes the trip from Ottawa to Beijing to climb on stage. His bouzouki, guitar and cell phone in hand, he sings in faultless Mandarin for a delirious-mostly female-audience. With unquenchable optimism in the face of adversity, this obsessive-compulsive who never quite grew up goes for the main chance, a spot in the closing ceremonies at the Athens Olympics. The multilingual Sapounidis, “the only Greek in the world who can sing in Chinese”, wants to deliver his own ingenuous lyrics as the Olympic torch is passed from Athens to Beijing. Chairman George follows the trials and tribulations of this sensitive, eccentric man as he beats the drum in a full-out campaign between China, Greece and Canada.

Chairman George DVD now available at www.eyesteelfilm.com

3)
The documentary film CHAIRMAN GEORGE was the official gala closing film at the ‘Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal’ on November 20. See www.ridm.qc.ca/ridm8.e/index.php

The feature version of the film, produced by EyeSteelFilm, was a grand success, receiving a standing ovation at the final screening and attracting the following media attention:

• Montreal Gazette,
• La Presse,
• Montreal Mirror,
• Concordia Link,
• Radio Canada International,
• CBC Radio ‘Sounds Like Canada’,
• CBC Radio weekend show,
• CIBL french radio,
• CFMB greek radio (twice)
• Global CH TV – greek and chinese programs,
• Odyssey TV
• Interview for Eleftherotypia-Epsilon magazine in Athens

The November 2005 issue of the Greek-Canadian magazine METOHOS features two stories with photos about George Stroumboulopoulos (CBC TV The Hour) and George Sapounidis. See www.metohos.com

Listen to Sapounidis’ interview Nov 18 with ‘Sounds Like Canada’ host Shelagh Rogers
http://www.cbc.ca/soundslikecanada/interviews.html

4)
Back from a successful Fall tour in CHINA spending 6 weeks from late Sept to early November in Beijing, Nanjing and Hubei province.

The tour started in Hubei province with Sapounidis representing Greece at the ‘Yichang International Tourism Festival’ where he performed songs in Chinese and Greek with guitar and Greek bouzouki. He then appeared with Scottish harpist and singer Katie Targett-Adams in a double bill performance that took place at the prestigious Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on October 14. Targett-Adams and Sapounidis separately performed Celtic and Greek repertoire on harp and bouzouki in addition to selected Chinese folksongs. They joined forces at the end of the concert with other Chinese performers including Zhou Ying on violin, the ‘Musicat’ ensemble and singers Liu Xiang and Gao Dongling. Sapounidis continued to Nanjing where he performed during China’s 10th National Games and was interviewed by CCTV-5 and BTV. In the last week of the tour he performed and lectured about Olympic volunteering in Beijing : Gaobeidian municipality, People’s University, Beijing Capital Library, Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada and for the Chaoyang district administration. He gave interviews and performed for China Radio International (3 times) and live on Beijing People’s Radio station.

5) Watch out for THE BAND: ‘Chairman George and the Ministers’ in 2006 !

George Sapounidis : vocals, guitar, bouzouki
Vince Halfhide : electric guitars
Stuart Watkins : bass, backing vocals
Ross Murray : drums, percussion

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Next China visit December 29 – January 9:
New Year’s performance with symphony orchestra in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Athens : December 14 – 20.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
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