The founder
Antonis Syrianos is a versatile artist, originally from Tinos. In addition to his studies in Law and International Commercial Law of Works of Art, he has studied music at Paris Conservatory of Music and at Teatro alla Scala Milan. In 2000 he began his career as a tenor solist at Teatro San Fidele Milan, and followed a successful career with numerous performances all over the world. He has been involved in the study of Greek, Neapolitan, Turkish and Spanish music and has recently started researching the impact of oriental music in the Mediterranean countries in collaboration with soloists of the Athens Conservatory Orchestra.
“I am Anastasia’s youngest nephew. The grandchild of her brother who because of his marriage to a woman of Kato Vrisi, had been blacklisted, and for many years had no relations with his family.”
“Oh dear, the women they married were not of our class” Kastromenes used to say. As the years went by, their relations got a little sweeter and it was at that time, me being about five years old, that I timidly began to understand the world around me.
It wasn’t really the fact that I looked like them as others in the family had inherited their stature and deep blue eyes as well. It was rather the curiosity I had from a young age to get to know everything as quickly as possible. This in combination with my excellent school performance, made them talking with exceptional pride when they referred to me. “The child of letters” (greek expression for someone with a good school performance) they would say staring at people in a rather insulting way, as if they were disowning them and denying any family connection to them.”
“Fascinated by their style and conversations, which had no other theme than the house and its glorious past, it didn’t take me long to amost move in with them. Putting my parental home entirely in the background was obviously rather disappointing for my family”.
“My young age became the dough that was skilfully moulded in their hands and the sponge that would absorb anything their lack of a family of their own had prevented them from transmitting. To a point where in a short time both the place where they lived and they themselves became my reference mark.
Through their way of entertainment and their stories, being certainly more than my childhood could feel and absorb, I matured faster. And little by little I dare to say I began absorbing these women into myself for better or for worse. To such an extent that sometimes it felt like I could hear them all talking in my head and competing who would be the first to talk”.
“This surely was and still remains what made me present them in such a way. The triptych of Kastromenes with all their naturalness. The music they played and songs they sang with guitars and mandolins accompanying them. And was there something I did not understand from their mocking fortune telling games, the lullabies, the dances, the dirges, the words from their songs, I would go back to their voices within me, always being ready at a moment’s notice to whisper to me.”
“Such a special, different, and unique way of life. This way of life was formed hierarchically among themselves as a divine gift. With no complaints to God whatsoever. With the powers and favors each one had, from the humblest one to the wisest one. This of course could not be other than my aunt Anastasia who from an early age convinced me that I was living something truly unique and that I should at all costs immortalize it.
Life with them was like school. Starting from the first grade all the way to University alternating between them several times within a single day. An inexhaustible field accumulating their own years, the fruitful years of their grandmothers, great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers, not allowing their minds to forget or neglect them.
It was a great fortune for me to live in this magical world. A world with centuries of history with mouths speaking their own stories. Wise, eloquent, or mindless and reckless, depending on the axiom each of them had been acknowledged with.”
“It was so much to fit into one’s head, so during my school years I shared everything with my schoolmates. They, in turn, lived the story through my words, eagerly awaiting for the sequel. It didn’t take long for the enthusiasm to pass from students to teachers. I remember there was a period of time when I was given one hour per week to recount and imitate to students and teachers all the wonderful things I had experienced!”
“Before the war and during the period of their prosperity the 21 ladies never submitted to anyone or anything but the glory and the greatness they inherited. They carried their dowries to this place, creating a true palace for the island standards. Carrying their glorious Venetian past, they felt like real queens, combining strength and complimenting each other in such a way that they did not let age and sadness enter, since the laughter and joyful voices never stopped. When age made its appearance in a form of dementia that had all the elements of carefreeness, they probably did not understand it. This dementia began to strike the higher levels of intelligence at first. The lower levels always served reverently and kept on serving and caring in the same way, watching each other leave without any complaint, as if a sponge was silently wiping them off, of a colorful painting.”
“My life with them was of crucial importance for the studies I chose to do, for music and writing but most of all it was of great importance for my effort to keep them alive, preserving the 400sqm in which they lived so that if they ever decided to come back they could find everything into place.”
