Dhiorios – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: Roula Ioannidou-Stavrou

Instrumentation: Voice (Baritone) and guitar

Duration: c: 5'30"

Date Written:  2023

Composer’s note: 

Several years ago, my old friend and mentor Theofanis Stavrou asked Cypriot poet Roula Ioannidis-Stavrou to write a poem about Dhiorios, his childhood village, located near the northern coast of Cyprus. Dhiorios, historically an ethnically mixed village, was captured by Turkish troops during the invasion in the summer of 1973, forcing the Greek inhabitants to leave. The poem expresses a longing to return not only to the physical environs of Dhiorios, but to the treasured memories of friends and family so far away in time and memory from the present-day life in exile, wherever in the world it may be. The poem was commissioned with the specific purpose of being set to music that could be sung by Professor Stavrou’s daughter Niki. This setting is one version; another is being written by Niki herself.