Iwona Glinka is Polish, with a heart big enough to fit her love for two homelands – Poland and Greece.
She is a musicologist, principal flautist of the Athens Symphony Orchestra and a core member of the Hellenic Contemporary Music Ensemble of Theodore Antoniou.
She teaches flute and chamber music at the Municipal Conservatories of Patras and Glyfada, and at the Conservatory Musical Horizons in Athens.
In her career, she has given dozens of solo recitals and has appeared as principal flautist with orchestras in Greece and around the world.
She has performed over one hundred world premières of works by renowned composers. Iwona had the honour, as she tells Neos Kosmos, of more than fifty of those being written especially for her.
Iwona Glinka is now in Melbourne, where, together with her husband, renowned Greek painter Evangelos Parameritis, she arrived determined to help artists in Greece.
They went through the process of shipping 118 art works of 37 Greek painters, and organised a significant exhibition under the title The Colours of Greece, that was opened on 19 February in Melbourne.
The paintings depict the cultural, architectural and physical landscape of Greece, showcasing the symbols of Hellenism.
It was the couple’s effort to help the painters in Greece, who not only have lost their jobs, but more and more galleries – like the one that for over a decade Evangelos had in the centre of Piraeus – are closing, leaving them without the basic exhibition space for their art work.
Even the artists from Georgia and other countries who, a while ago, found their way to Greece, now leave and go back to their homelands.
Iwona’s enthusiasm and willingness, to help those in need in Greece, is boundless.
The entire commission she received for a concert of Polish music she performed in Canada in last year, Iwona invested in bringing this special exhibition to Australia, thus giving Greek painters a sense of hope and recognition.
However, she doesn’t hide her disappointment with the “indifference” that the Greek diaspora of Melbourne has shown for the exhibition.
“I am very upset that we have not seen support from Greeks of Melbourne, who could help the artists in Greece by purchasing their artwork. I’m a musician, and I’m still in a good position in Greece. But they are hungry. They have devoted their lives to become painters, and now it’s only the art that is not supported in Greece,” Iwona says passionately.
“They didn’t decide to come and knock on the door of the Greek community organisations here – they want to die there, honestly. All these artworks we brought here, showcase the Greek landscape and Greek symbols, although it would be more practical for them to put on canvas something that would be easily sold.”
Hellenism as a strong element in Polish education
“You know, in Poland we put great emphasis on Greek culture and civilization,” says Iwona, explaining the reasons that made her learn Greek.
At the age of 24, she made Athens and Greece her second home and learned the language without attending school.
“In Poland, you can’t become a lawyer if you don’t speak Ancient Greek and Latin. So, when I went to Greece, I didn’t want to see what was happening at the time – I wanted to see the ancient, the old, and I wanted to learn the language quickly. Furthermore, in Greece you can’t really survive if you don’t speak the language,” Iwona says laughingly.
In 2012, she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, for her research on contemporary Greek music for solo flute.
Her love for Greece lead Iwona to her postdoctoral research – one for the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, on the topic of “Evolution of Greek music in Australia”, and another one, for the University of Crete, where she will deal with a more practical issue – the role of music in shaping cultural identity of Greeks in Australia, with the aim that this research to will lead to the creation of a database.
“I wanted to do something for Greek culture. I wanted to expand my connection with anthropology and sociology, and also use my skills as a musicologist. As I have been reading so much about the Greek diaspora in Australia, I decided to do postdoctoral research here. I thought that Melbourne and Australia will generally be rich for my research.”
Until her postdoctoral studies bring her permanently to Australia, her love for Hellenism and music is what keeps her busy in Greece.
“I do it with my heart and soul, I perform for those composers who expect to hear their works.”
Message to Greeks of diaspora
Speaking with Iwona, one wonders what makes a foreigner want to learn a language, similar to no other, fluently?
And, on the other hand, what makes Greek children of diaspora struggle with the language of their grandparents?
In Iwona’s opinion, there are two solutions.
“The first is to create immense love for language; teachers to explain to children that we wouldn’t exist today without Ancient Greeks. To show the historical course of medicine, science… To stress that their distant grandfathers, thousands of years ago, created things for us to enjoy today.
“Second – to create a sense of nationalism, to understand that their nation was tempted hard at some point in history, during the Ottoman rule. But they kept their culture and their language, with great difficulty and hidden schools,” Iwona says.
Culture and art in Greece of crisis
Every year, during the Holy Week, a movie Quo Vadis runs on Greek television.
The book was written when Poland did not exist on the map, by the Polish writer, Henryk Sienkievits, who lived with Frederic Chopin in Paris.
They went to Paris to save the Polish culture, to give their culture the continuity it needed, Iwona reminds us.
“We have to understand how important it is to write, to paint, to sing and speak Greek language – in that way, we give the continuity to our culture when the country is struggling.
“It is our identity and we should keep it. Education and culture should always stand on their feet.”
This is exactly what Iwona has been trying to do, with her own initiatives.
After funding from the Ministry of Culture was cut for the Greek Composers’ Union, Iwona became one of the rare musicians who play the music of the composers – members of the union – without any commission.
When she returns to Greece, Iwona Glinka will perform two concerts.
March 14, at the Goethe Institute, is dedicated to her and the work she has been doing by Theodore Antoniou, the last from the generation of eminent Greek composers.
“On 15 March I am honoured to play a recital for flute and piano as part of the Acropolis museum series of six concerts a year.”
When discussing the future of art in Greece, Evangelos and Iwona, unfortunately, come to the same conclusion.
There is a problem – the future does not exist.
“I don’t believe in a future for art in Greece. Every day, artists’ wings get cut in Greece. The history will answer why is this happening,” Iwona says.
In the end, Iwona sends a simple message to the Greeks of Melbourne – to come and support their nation and its culture, through the exhibition of 37 Greek artists.
“We need to understand that art means continuity, continuity of Hellenism. Continuity is language, music, art in general,” concludes Iwona.