To celebrate these 40 years I decided that indeed a "celebration" of some sort was necessary and that this event, in whatever form it took, must be a gift to Paros and to Greece, for providing such a magnificent and inspiring home for our program since 1966.

I decided that the best gift we could give would be the universal gift of music, and so was born, The Aegean Center A Cappella Music Festival, that took place the entire month of June, ‘06. The Festival of Thanks! This festival was the first of an annual event hopefully to take place every June on Paros.

I sent letters to many groups and ensembles that I felt worthy enough to participate in our Festival and a most extraordinary thing began to happen. Almost all the groups I contacted sent back a positive reply.

Amongst them were (hold on to your hats!):

The Hilliard Ensemble
The Anonymous 4
Trio Mediaeval
The Tallis Scholars
and
Ladysmith Black Mambazo

I was, and still am, as breathless as anyone at such a response.

The idea behind my selection of groups was to remain true to our principle of being a cultural exchange program as much as we are a program of the arts and humanities. For 40 years the Center has brought foreign students to study in Greece, here in Paros. For 40 years this experience has changed the lives of each and every student and has enlightened them to the contemporary Greek world and culture. Read the Center's quest book for an idea how their lives have been changed and their world view altered for the the good, profoundly so.

A few years ago I prepared an address to deliver to several ministries in Athens and various embassies, the U.S. and British amongst them, I made the point that on a very important level our students make far better international ambassadors than any of the professional diplomats cloistered behind fortified and protected embassy gates. For 40 years our students have 'lived' in Greece; for 40 years our students have walked the streets and interacted with the familiar everyday people of Greece, not just an assortment of haut monde or exclusive political dignitaries. They live everyday-life with everyday-people and the vast majority fall in love with this Greece, this Paros.

The festival was a enormous success and given to Paros as the gift promised. The power and beauty that surrounded all present at the concerts is very difficult to express. In an attempt to do so I want to share an encounter I had with a local man that, I believe, tells the story very well indeed. It is extracted from a letter written to the performers after the Festival had ended.

"...and every time I encounter someone who was at the concert they can not find words. Something has happened here on Paros. A local Greek man, a big man, came up to me and wanting to express his thanks grabbed my hand and looked right into my eyes in such a way that it sent a shiver through me. He gripped my left hand with his left, and with his right hand began to make a graceful sweeping gesture of swirls over our heads. Tilting his head upward he stared at his hand swirling with a look of amazement and joy. I stared up at his swirling hand as he stretched and tried to reach further toward the sky. We were transfixed. Then he brought his swirling hand down slowly and stared at me again, still holding my hand and patting his heart gently in thanks. Not one word was spoken.”

Another wrote:

...Life for us has changed on Paros. It has no choice now, after the concerts, after the Music. Even if one tried to close their ears, tried to close their eyes and their heart to such beauty, the sheer power of it would defeat them, would crush any force trying to keep it out of their life. The music is in us all. It is present still. It lives and will be a part of everything we do and become.

The music is now in these ancient walls (the Baptistry of the Church of a Hundred Doors)... such Beauty will reverberate for another 1700 years. It will be here forever. It will be present and touch those who, in time forward, never were present June of 2006. They will walk among the stones and feel something. They will not know what is effecting them when they encounter the stones.
They will consider and muse...
They will say softly to themselves,
How beautiful!
How very beautiful
These walls are.

...Such things happen in life. There are those times when one encounters Beauty of such magnitude that everything must change, it has no choice."

Warmly,

John Pack