Eugenia Manolidou facts for kids

Eugenia Karagiannidou, known as Eugenia Manolidou, is a talented Greek composer and conductor. She was born in Athens, Greece. She is married to Adonis Georgiadis, who is a well-known politician and was once the Minister for Health in Greece.

About Eugenia Manolidou

Eugenia Karagiannidou was born in Athens, Greece. In 1995, Eugenia married a painter named Theodore Manolides. They later separated. She then lived with Adonis Georgiades, who is a politician and former Minister.

Eugenia has four children. Two children, Alexandros (born 1996) and Olympia Theodora (born 1998), are with Theodore. Her two younger children, Perseus (born 2005) and Alcaeus (born 2014), are with Adonis. Eugenia and Adonis were married on June 22, 2009.

Education and Music Career

Eugenia Manolidou began learning to play the piano when she was five years old. Even though she practiced piano, her main dream was always to compose music. She studied at the Conservatory J.S. Bach with a Russian teacher named Alla Halapsis.

After high school, she first studied management. However, she soon decided to follow her musical dream overseas. She was accepted into the famous Juilliard School in New York. There, she studied how to compose music and arrange it for orchestras with composer Daron Hagen. She also learned how to lead an orchestra (conducting) with Vincent La Selva. At the same time, she continued her advanced piano studies.

In 1998, after four years, she returned to Europe. She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Belgian composer and conductor Robert Janssens.

Teaching Ancient Greek to Kids

Since 2016, Eugenia Manolidou has focused on teaching Ancient Greek, especially to young people. She is the Director of Elliniki Agogi, which is an educational center started in 1994. She leads programs that make Ancient Greek easy and fun for children aged 3 to 16.

Her teaching style uses "experiential learning." This means kids learn by doing things. They combine old texts with music, theater, storytelling, and modern teaching methods. This approach is part of Elliniki Agogi's official teaching philosophy.

Manolidou has written several educational books to help children learn Ancient Greek language and culture. These books include:

• Μανθάνω καὶ Γράφω τὰ γράμματα τοῦ ἀλφαβήτου (I Learn and Write the Letters of the Alphabet)
• Γράφω, Σβεννύω καὶ Μανθάνω λέξεις (I Write, Erase, and Learn Words)
• The historical series Ιχνηλάτες της Ιστορίας (History Trackers, Volumes 1 and 2)

All these books are published by Ellinoekdotiki.

She also helped create the first worldwide certificate in Classical Greek with PeopleCert. She often shares her work at international meetings, like Jornadas de Cultura Clásica in Spain. She also organizes the yearly Delphi Classics meeting during the Delphi Economic Forum. This event brings together experts and teachers in Classical Studies from around the world.

In November 2024, she spoke at the first World Conference of the Classics in Beijing. She represented Elliniki Agogi's work in Classical education on a global level.

Manolidou has also published articles in the Journal of Classics Teaching (from Cambridge University Press). Some of her articles are:

• "Ancient Greek for Kids: From Theory to Praxis" (2022)
• "In Greek We Trust! Παίζοντες Μανθάνομεν" (2023)

Her work has been featured in major news outlets. These include Kathimerini, To Vima, CNN Greece, China Daily, and El Español.

Music Albums

Eugenia Manolidou has released several music albums.

Meanings and Symbols (1999)

This was Eugenia's first album. It showed her musical ideas about 14 important myths from ancient Greece. She has often said that ancient Greece is a great source of inspiration for her. She first recorded parts of it in New York in 1998 while she was a student at the Juilliard School. Later, in May 1999, she recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra SIF 309. This album was released in Greece.

Greek Hymns (2001)

Her second album featured her musical versions of 10 Orphic hymns. She recorded it in the Czech Republic with the Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, along with singers and a choir.

Archetypon (2004)

This album included Manolidou's first symphony, called Mythical Couples. It also had two other songs dedicated to Greece and Alexander the Great. Mythical Couples is a symphonic poem, which is a piece of music that tells a story. It was recorded in October 1998 with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra SIF 309. The songs "Hymn to Greece" and "Hymn to Alexander" were recorded with the Czech Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů and singers.

Gaia (2004)

This album contains the music for a ballet called Gaia (which means Earth). The music was recorded in September 1999 with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra SIF 309. The ballet was performed in Wuppertal the same year.

Epos (2007)

Epos is a large musical work for a full orchestra, solo singers, a choir, and a narrator. It was recorded in 2005 in Athens with members of the Athens State Orchestra and many talented singers. Ioannis Ganassos helped Eugenia Manolidou write the words for the music.

Educational Recordings for Children (2003-2009)

Eugenia also created a series of educational recordings for children with her husband. These recordings tell Greek history and mythology as fairytales. They use music, narration, and sound effects to bring stories like Hercules: The real face of the great hero, Alexander the Great: The living legend, and Iliad-Odyssey to life for young listeners.