Penn Libraries will present a lecture–concert on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., exploring how Greek folk music first flourished on American soil.
Grammy-winning producer and ethnomusicologist Christopher C. King, author of Lament from Epirus, will draw on rare 78-rpm recordings from his private collection to show how Greek immigrant communities and early American record labels carried the sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean across the Atlantic. His program combines historic discs with photographs, readings, and a live musical performance.
A surprising American story
Between 1910 and 1932, the great majority of Greek-language 78-rpm records were produced in the United States. By the mid-1920s, nearly one-sixth of all phonograph discs sold in America featured Greek or Asia Minor music. King traces how these recordings preserved folk traditions, encouraged innovation, and reflected the entrepreneurial spirit of early Greek immigrants.
The program offers a preview of the upcoming exhibition “The Greek-American Music Experience in the Early 20th Century” at the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
About Christopher C. King
Over a career of twenty-five years King has produced 353 CD collections of historical folk music from around the world and won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Historical Album. His book Lament from Epirus (W. W. Norton, 2018), later translated into Greek as Ηπειρώτικο Μοιρολόι, introduced the mirologi of Epirus to audiences across Europe and America.
King has worked as a digital preservation specialist for the Library of Congress and the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture and has consulted for museums in the United States. He has presented at TEDx, the New York Public Library, the Gennadius Library, Megaron–Athens Concert Hall Music Library, the Library of Congress and the Paris Review of Books. In 2022 he received a Public Diplomacy Grant from the U.S. State Department for lectures in Greece and was awarded honorary Greek citizenship for his work.
Event details
Date and time: Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 7:00–8:30 p.m.
Location: Kislak Center, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Admission: Free and open to the public. Registration is required for guests outside Penn and encouraged for all participants. RSVP here.
Related materials from the Penn Libraries collection will be on view in the Lea Library beginning at 6:15 p.m. and again after the program until 9:00 p.m.
Sponsors
Presented by the Hellenic University Club of Philadelphia, the Dean C. and Zoë S. Pappas Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies at Stockton University and the Greek American Heritage Society of Philadelphia, with the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections as co-host.
The evening offers a rare chance to hear historic recordings alongside live music and to discover how early Greek immigrants helped sustain the folk traditions of Greece in their new homeland.
