St Paul's Sessions

The innovative concert series St Paul's Sessions returns to the Athens Conservatory for a fifth season, featuring artists from different backgrounds and contemporary musical sounds that emerge from the combination of acoustic instruments, electronic media, and digital art, where the boundaries of creation are expanded live at a breathing distance from the audience. All concerts of the St Paul's Sessions 5 series will be hosted in two brand new venues in the Athens Conservatory's iconic building in the centre of Athens, the famous and until recently unfinished Ioannis Despotopoulos Amphitheatre and the New Stage, which open their doors to the public for the first time this year after many years of waiting.


Kicking off the new season on Saturday 22 October with Ben Frost, returning to live performances after a three-year hiatus. Born in Melbourne, Australia and based in Reykjavik, Iceland since 2005, Frost continues to create, record, and release non-stop under the umbrella of the famed Bedroom Community collective.
On Saturday 19 November, two genius artists with contemporary perspectives and well-staged performances take the baton. Electronic music pioneer Murcof from Mexico, aka Fernando Corona, together with Spanish artist Sergi Palau, will present a unique audiovisual experience.
On March 4, Dutch composer and pianist Joep Beving arrives in Greece for the first time, where he will present his latest album Hermetism on Deutsche Grammophon in a brand-new light show, the result of a creative collaboration with Dutch artist Boris Acket.

On Saturday, April 1, it's the turn of the acclaimed German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann, who performs and records as Hauschka. Having received rave reviews and nominations for Oscars and Golden Globes, he comes to Athens to show us why he is considered one of the leading composers of film music, with the prepared piano as his main instrument.
On April 19 we have the arrival of the great electronic musician Tim Hecker, where he will present his new album, accompanied by two excellent musicians from Japan.
On Saturday 29 April the legendary American guitarist and composer Marc Ribot returns to St Paul's Sessions 4 years later, introducing for the first time his new trio The Jazz Bins.
This year's St Paul's Sessions will be curtained on 6 May by a leading figure in experimental music, German Carsten Nicolai, widely known as Alva Noto, in a rare collaboration with renowned French writer Anne-James Chaton. Building on their latest album Alphabet, they will combine Chaton's masterful storytelling with Nicolai's techno and experimental beats.