05 Apr Vocal Workshop with Maria Papageorgiou
– – – Rediscovering the joy of singing – – –
SYNERGEIO Culture space in collaboration with SMouTh, proudly offers a four-hour vocal workshop “Ftu Kseleftheria” (Breathe Freedom) with Maria Papageorgiou on Sunday, 10 May 2026 6.00pm to 10.00pm at SYNERGEIO Culture Space (Economou Ex Economon 22) in Larissa.
A few words about the workshop
Maria Papageorgiou is a vocal coach who approaches the voice as a means of freedom and authentic expression. In the workshop “Ftu Xeleftheria” (Breathe Freedom) she combines technique, body and emotion, creating a safe and experiential space where participants are invited to liberate their voices and discover their personal sound. In the workshop, we will explore the following topics:
- What is the diaphragm and how does natural breathing work
- Function and capabilities of the diaphragm
- Awareness of restrictive physical patterns and liberation from them.
- Everyone’s inner song
- What are the key resonance points
- How to strengthen our voice while speaking and singing
- How to enrich the richness of our tone
- Learning polyphonic singing
- How to protect our vocal cords from injury and fatigue
- Observing the human voice across places, eras, and social stereotypes
- Hearing as a fundamental sense of Homo Erectus. Exploring our air-borne and bone-conduction hearing
- The Tomatis Method: hearing or listening?
- Learning polyphony based on traditional song
- Harmonizing polyphonic song with musical instruments
Workshop’s philosophy
Although singing has been an integral part of human culture, expression, and healing for millennia, the rapid growth of the music industry and the intense promotion of role models in recent decades, primarily through television and the internet, have led many people to view singing as a competition to demonstrate one’s abilities. The limited expression of Westerners through their voices, combined with the limited use of proper (diaphragmatic) breathing, is now scientifically linked to physical and mental ailments. How, then, can we all rediscover the joy of our lost singing? Our voice and our breath are two functions inextricably linked to our emotional expression and balance. However, often a lack of knowledge or the limiting beliefs we hold prevent us from feeling truly free, so that we can reach our full potential. Drawing on the “memory” our body has held since our mother’s womb regarding how we breathe, by recalling our vocal range in our daily emotional expressions and discovering the maximum vibration of our vocal cords and the use of our muscles, we will retrieve these recordings that are deeply rooted within us and reconnect with our harmonious selves through simple experiential exercises and songs.
Maria Papageorgiou was born in Grevena. Since 2010, she has been active in Athens as a songwriter, musician, music producer, and vocal coach. She has released five albums of original compositions, an album featuring previously unreleased live recordings of songs from her more than 80 performances at Stavros tou Notou (“4 Years of Mondays”), a digital album featuring works from the international repertoire (“ESORIA”), as well as the most recent release of “Allilographia,” a recording project proposed by Mikis Theodorakis, featuring reinterpretations of mainly “hidden” songs of the composer.
In 2023, at the urging of Thanos Mikroutsikos’s family, she presented “17 Humble Requiem for the Future” at the Olympia Theater, a performance/tribute to the work of the great composer which received widespread praise from the public and traveled to many important venues.
In 2016, Sub Urban published her first book, titled “A Glimmer of Panic,” a personal account of anxiety disorder, which was reissued for the fourth time in 2025 by the Patakis Publishing House, while she recently made her literary debut with the book “The Barking” (Patakis Publishing House, 2025).
She has worked as a radio producer for the Second Program of Greek National Radio, as a performer alongside the choreographer Apostolia Papadamaki (Quasi Stellar), the director Elli Papakonstantinou (Neuköllner Oper), and as a member of the Kopernikos group, staging children’s performances.
Through the vocal workshop “Ftu Kselevtheria” (Freedom), she creates music groups throughout Greece every year.
(photo credits Akis Christou)
How can I participate?
Please follow the two-step participatiοn process as described below:
- Step A: For your registration please fill out on time the form: https://forms.gle/DAVHRkoFaEG8spCy9 The registration deadline is on Thursday 16th of April and the number of spots is limited!
- Step B: The participation fee is €70 (€60 for SMouTh’s registered members). All interested members in order to secure their spot are kindly requested to submit the deposit of €30 which can be actioned either in person at SYNERGEIO box office (Tuesday–Saturday, 10.00AM–2.00PM and 7.00PM-9.00PM), or by making a bank deposit into one of the following bank accounts with the note “Deposit for M. Papageorgiou’s workshop” and the participant’s name.
Alpha BANK: GR1401403000300002002046817 OR National Bank of Greece (NBG): GR29 0110 3970 0000 3970 2988 328 (Account holder name: SYNERGEIO CHOROS POLITISMOU)