Collaboration with Mikis Theodorakis

Henning Schmiedt first met Mikis Theodorakis in 1990 during the Berlin recording sessions for the album Theodorakis sings Theodorakis. This encounter marked the beginning of an intense collaboration with the great composer which has continued ever since. Initially appearing as pianist in Theodorakis’s concerts, Schmiedt later took on roles as ensemble leader, arranger, musical director, and producer of CDs and live productions, becoming one of Theodorakis’s closest artistic partners.
Already in 1990, Schmiedt performed in Canto General with the Berlin Radio Choir at the Herodes Atticus Theatre in Athens and the Dion Theatre in Katerini, and joined Theodorakis for the Theodorakis sings Theodorakis tour in Nuremberg, Berlin, and Cologne. In 1991 he continued with concerts in Luxembourg (Escher Theater) and at the Ephesus Theatre in Turkey, where Theodorakis shared the stage with Zülfü Livaneli and Manos Hadjidakis. Between 1992 and 1993, further tours took him to Cologne, Graz, Vienna, Linz, Zurich, Siegen, Jerusalem, Belgium (Dranouter Festival), and the Istanbul Kartal Stadium, where Theodorakis and Livaneli performed together.
The collaboration deepened in 1995 with a European tour of Theodorakis sings Theodorakis with Maria Farantouri. In the late 1990s, Schmiedt increasingly took on artistic leadership: in 1996 for the Poetica album recordings, in 1997 he worked with Theodorakis on Canto General in Norway and on the Theodorakis & Livaneli – Together concerts in Berlin, Paris, and Frankfurt. In 1998 he served as musical director for Maria Farantouri’s concerts at the ancient Epidaurus Theatre, arranged symphonic versions of Canto General (together with Jens Naumilkat) for performances with the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra in Linz and later in Montreal, and toured internationally as musical director of Farantouri’s Asmata and Poetica programs. He also arranged and conducted the Mauthausen cycle in a special version for voice, piano, cello, and electronics, presented at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.
In 1999, Schmiedt prepared a chamber version of Theodorakis’s opera Kostas Karyotakis, premiered in Berlin and Passau, and worked on the millennium concert on the Acropolis in Athens, broadcast worldwide by CNN and BBC. In the following years, he arranged and produced important recordings such as Asmata and Poetica with Maria Farantouri, co-arranged symphonic and chamber versions of Theodorakis’s works, and took on key artistic roles in major international productions.
In 2000, Schmiedt was musical director of the gala concert for Theodorakis’s 75th birthday at Munich’s Königsplatz, featuring Milva, Farantouri, Petros Pandis, and Jocelyn B. Smith. That same year, he co-composed with Theodorakis the score for the Greek-Australian feature film Beware of Greeks Bearing Guns (Universal). In 2003, he arranged a CD with songs by Theodorakis for Maria Farantouri and Jannis Vakarelis. In the following years he led concerts with chamber music by Theodorakis, arranged works for the UNESCO IMC Music Prize ceremony in Aachen (2006), and recorded First Songs.
From 2007 onwards, Theodorakis dedicated new works such as East of the Aegean to Schmiedt and Jens Naumilkat, which Schmiedt premiered and recorded. He also performed Theodorakis’s piano works (Preludes, Songs Without Words) and arranged concerts at the Athens Megaron (2008) and Thessaloniki Megaron (2009). That same year he was involved in the founding of the International Theodorakis Academy, dedicated to preserving and developing the composer’s legacy. Schmiedt arranged works for the Schott Verlag in Mainz (Odysseias), curated and performed at the Transition Festival 2010 in Bremen and Thessaloniki, and played at Berlin’s Max-Schmeling-Halle in Canto General.
Throughout the 2010s, Schmiedt continued this collaboration with concerts and productions worldwide. In 2015, on the occasion of Theodorakis’s 90th birthday, he performed with Maria Farantouri in Bilbao, Zurich, Munich, Luxembourg, Helsinki, Berlin, Mainz, Antwerp, and Rotterdam, and played again in a major Canto General recording in Bremen and Berlin. In 2018 he performed with Farantouri at the University of Salzburg in honor of Theodorakis. In 2019 he joined Farantouri and Jung Tae-Choon at the Let’s DMZ Peace Festival in Korea. In 2020 he toured Germany with Farantouri and Assaf Kacholi in concerts dedicated to Theodorakis.
Theodorakis himself named Henning Schmiedt in his will as one of the musicians entrusted to keep his work alive, particularly in connection with the International Theodorakis Academy. This trust was reflected in continued projects: in 2023 Schmiedt arranged and performed in Theodorakis concerts with Maria Farantouri at the Athens Acropolis, Zurich, Munich, and Bremen. In 2025, he accompanies Farantouri in Bochum at the Schauspielhaus in the Mauthausen Cantata for voice and piano.
In parallel, Schmiedt co-produced educational and community projects such as First Songs with children’s choirs in Germany, in cooperation with the International Theodorakis Academy. With the Theodorakis Trio (Volker Holly Schlott, Jens Naumilkat, and Schmiedt himself), he arranged and performed chamber versions of Theodorakis’s music.
Marking the composer’s centenary, 2025 will also see the release of a special album: Lost Songs – 14 previously unpublished compositions by Mikis Theodorakis, presented in a unique piano interpretation by Henning Schmiedt and issued by Intuition.

→ Henning Schmiedt on Mikis Theodorakis
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