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Zorba’s theme from the 1964 film is what the composer Mikis Theodorakis will always be known for outside his native Greece, but in his time he was a figure on the world stage, rubbing shoulders with poets, politicians and artists like Pablo Neruda, Olof Palme and Salvador Dali. His most powerful music evokes a spirit of heroic rebellion that resonated with liberation movements from Greece to Latin America. And, far beyond Zorba, he wrote classical symphonies, ballets, operas, and popular songs as light as a sea breeze.

Maria Margaronis recalls this most prolific and energetic composer and political activist, who was arrested, exiled, imprisoned and tortured many times during the most turbulent years of Greece’s 20th Century, but who clung to his belief that art is not a decoration but a necessity.

Maria’s guests include Gail Holst-Warhaft, poet, musician and biographer; film-maker and festival-promoter Asteris Kutulas, actor and politician Lydia Koniordou; and the legendary interpreter of Theodorakis’ work, Maria Farantouri.