Conversations with Homer

The San Francisco-based Greek Chamber Music Project and Chicago singer/songwriter Joe Goodkin premiere an original song adaptation of Homer’s “Iliad,” commissioned by the Center for Greek Studies. “Conversations with Homer” is a series of first-person songs that capture the horror, grief and love that permeate Homer’s epic poem and the combat experience. The hour-long program features songs written by Goodkin and arranged by the Greek Chamber Music Project’s Ellie Ganelin, as well as spoken-word pieces and student translations of Homer’s ancient Greek and Vergil’s Latin poetry. Door: 4:30 p.m. Free.

Greek Chamber Music Project

The Greek Chamber Music Project is an arts presenter and record label devoted to the music of Greek composers, shedding light on little-known chamber music works, as well as revisiting popular songs in a fresh way. As a record label, it has several releases to its name, including “Hellenic Song: A Musical Migration” and “The Moon is Red: A Tribute to Manos Hadjidakis,” which feature a diverse selection of classical works and reimagined popular songs for piano, flute, violin and voice. Past performance venues have included the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Hellenic Center in Washington, D.C., the Hellenic Community of Vancouver (Canada) and Kerrytown Concert House (Ann Arbor, Michigan). The project has collaborated with the Embassy of Greece in the United States and has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, University of Michigan, SF State and Hellenic Society Prometheas.

Joe Goodkin

Chicago singer/songwriter Joe Goodkin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a bachelor’s degree in classics. Since 2002, he has traveled the U.S. as a modern bard performing his one-man folk opera retelling of Homer’s “Odyssey” to high school, college and general audiences, totaling nearly 300 performances at institutions such as Harvard, Brown, UC-Berkeley, Stanford and more. In 2020, he will complete his odyssey to perform his folk opera in all 50 states and embark on a monthlong tour of Europe to include performances in the U.K., Ireland, France, Italy, Greece, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Co-sponsored by departments of Classics and Comparative and World Literature; schools of Art, Music and Humanities and Liberal Studies; program in Modern Greek Studies; and V.E.T.S. at SFSU.