Partners
Christine Condaris, Project Coordinator
Christine Condaris is Professor of Music and former Chair of the Department of Fine & Performing Arts at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts, US. Her paternal grandparents Christina Hondrellis and Demetrios Kontaras were born and raised in Mesotopos.
Professor Condaris has had a wide range of experience in her 4+ decades career as an educator and administrator. Highlights include co-founding the education organization Northern Berkshire Creative Arts and founding the ensemble North Adams New Music Consort. Condaris has served as guest editor for the arts and medicine edition of the International Journal of User Driven Healthcare, and reviewed for Notes, the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association and the MultiCultural Journal. She is an active member of the Athens Institute for Education and Research.
In addition to receiving the 2020 Best Professor of the Berkshires Award, Professor Condaris is also the 2018 recipient of the Berkshire Magazine 25: Most Dedicated, Most Creative, Most Influential Award. A former trustee for the Elizabeth Freeman Center, a not for profit that addresses domestic and sexual violence in Berkshire County, Professor Condaris also served as President of the Board of Trustees for the Berkshire Music School and is a new Trustee of the Berkshire Opera Festival.
Professor Condaris has a B.A. cum laude and Ph.D. from Wesleyan University CT in Ethnomusicology and an M.A. from New York University in Musicology. She is also the creator of the digital folklore museum of the village of Dafni, Laconia, Greece.
christine.condaris@mcla.edu
Fotios Vasiloglou, Historian and Educator
Fotis Vasiloglou grew up in Mesotopos, Lesvos. A retired teacher, he is very involved in the dissemination of cultural heritage. He is an active member of the Lesvos Mesotopitan Association “Rebirth” and has served as president. Fotis Vasiloglou has participated as a speaker at the Folklore Symposia in Cyprus. He has toured Greece and the U.S. as a member of the dance company Glentistades where he performs and educates his audience on the traditional folk dances of Mesotopos. He has been honored with commendations from the Academy of Athens Department of Research of Greek Folklore and in 2010 received the Excellence and Innovation Award from the Ministry of Education.
Mr. Vasiloglou began his writing activity in the Mesotopos newspaper “Mesotopitika Nea” and has continued there for the past 35 years. He is systematically involved in local research and has authored numerous books including A Basket of Stories: The Art of Basketry in the Lesvos Mesopotamia in 2010, As the Water Flows: The History of the Waters in the Lesvos Mesopotamia in 2012, The Song of the Winged One in the Valley with the Watermills: Millions of the Lesvos Mesotopos in 2020, and Insomnia: Stories from the Middle of Lesvos in 2023.
In addition to being a scholar of folklore, is also active in environmental work both as a teacher and as a speaker at Environmental Education conferences.
Kassiani Plati, Museum Educator
Kassiani Plati is a historian, museologist, and museum educator based in Greece. Her academic research focuses on ethno-linguistics, the preservation of folklore, and archival heritage. Ms. Plati successfully submitted her master’s thesis “Formulation of Basic Museological Principles and Exhibition Proposal for Folklore Museum of Mesotopos of Lesvos” to Athens University in 2014.
Plati is best known for her work with the Basil Papantoniou Foundation, formerly the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation in Nafplio. As Head of Educational Programs, she manages ethnographic archives, coordinates exhibitions and events, authors publications, and participates in national as well as international conferences. Previous to this, she worked at the Museum of Geology and Paleontology of the University of Athens, and the Archaeological Museum of Argos.
A prolific writer, Kassani Plati has contributed to multiple bilingual books and exhibition catalogs documenting Greek heritage. Her most recent work is included in The Costumes of the Historical Greek Geographical Area in 2023, and Paidiothen... (From childhood), a bilingual exhibition catalog.
Kassiani Plati is a graduate of the Department of History and Ethnology of the Democritus University of Thrace. She has a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the University of Athens. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Philology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Xeni Doudouni, Museum Assistant
A rising senior at the EPAL Kallonis High School, Ms. Doudounis is a native of Mesotopos. She enjoys living in a small, safe and friendly community. The youngest of five children, she aspires to be a web-designer which would also give her the flexibility to travel. She speaks fluent English and a little German. Her parents are farmers.
Angelos Karamanakos, Museum Assistant
A rising 10th grader at the Agra Middle/High School, Mr. Karamanakos is the oldest of two children. With family roots in Mesotopos but living in Athens, he and his family moved to Mesotopos permanently last year. He holds a Proficiency Certificate in English and aspires to study physics and engineering at the University of Athens. HIs maternal grandfather is the artist Elias Voudouris whose painting hangs in the Museum. HIs parents are carpenters.