UE composers from Greece

ALEXANDROS GEORGIADIS (born in Athens, 1976), studied piano and music theory in Athens
(in Jannis Ioannidis' class). Later, he studied composition at the State University of Music in
Cologne/Germany - Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
(composition class by York Höller) and visited the computer music seminars by Clarence
Barlow at the same University.
He is a freelance composer and performer. His works are been premiered in Greece and
abroad (Germany, The Netherlands, Italy etc.)

Milestones:
- Participation in Festivals for Electroacoustic music in 2008, 2012 and 2013 in Greece [Athens]

- Composer-in-Residence for Camerata Europaea [Athens 2015]

Hurdles: many!

Alexandros Spyrou is a Greek composer, music theorist, and artistic director. His music has been performed across Europe and North America by such ensembles as Klangforum Wien, London Sinfonietta, JACK Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten, MDI Ensemble Milano, Ensemble SurPlus, Trio f : t, Longleash Trio, Ensemble Airborne Extended, Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Musica Nova Ensemble, Ensemble DissonArt, and many acclaimed soloists. He has presented his music and research in several festivals and instititions such as the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, and the Schloss Solitude Akademie in Germany, IRCAM Forum in France, the Nordic Percussion Festival in Denmark, Composit Festival in Italy, the XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Croatia, the Ticino Musica Festival in Switzerland, the 2020 NASA Biennial Conference at Arizona State University, the Midwest Composers Symposium and the Exchange of Midwestern Collegiate Composers in the United States, the Extended Senses Symposium in the UK, the Beyond Expo, Thessaloniki International Fair, the Sacred Music Days and Piano Festival at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Stegi Onassis Cultural Center and the OutHear New Music Week in Greece. In 2019, his portrait concert Liquid Identities was presented at the RadioKulturhaus in Vienna, Austria and the PROGR Zentrum in Bern, Switzerland. In 2021, his VR project "Etude for Virtual Space" was showcased at Helexpo - Thessaloniki International Fair.

• From 1983 to 1992 he was the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki State Orchestra. • From 1994 to 1997 he was the Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera. • During the period 1997-1999 he was the Artistic Director of the Music Ensembles of the Greek Radio. • From 2004 to 2008 the Municipality of Corfu assigned him the artistic direction of the Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Corfu. • From 2011 to 2017 he was the Artistic Director of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. • Since May 2010 he has been the Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu. • From 2001 to 2019 he was the Artistic Director of the Patmos Sacred Music Festival entitled "The Holy Revelation of Music". • Since 1990 he has been the Artistic Director of the "Music College" of Thessaloniki. • From 1992 to 2011 he taught orchestration and conducting at the Department of Musicology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Alkis Baltas is a member of the Greek Composers’ Union.

Angelo Quetzal Marchiori Patrikios, composer and pianist, was born in Vicenza, Italy in 1971. He took his first piano lessons with Angeliki Simou. He studied composition at the Southeastern College with Panagiotis Adam, Minas Alexiadis, Miranda Kaldi, and piano with Christina Tertipi. He continued his studies with Christos Anastasiou, Panagiotis Adam, Vassilis Foster and Iosif Papadatos with whom he received a diploma in composition. He has attended a six-month choir seminar with Antonis Kontogeorgiou, as well as an electronic music seminars at the Ionian University. He has taught piano, music theory, and composition since 1995 at various conservatories and music schools, and has collaborated with several Primary Schools in the Municipality of Zografou. He has composed works of chamber music, works for voices, for small orchestra, electronic music, music for the theater, and has adapted works for various ensembles.

Aris Carastathis is Professor of Theory /Composition and Chair of the Department of Music at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. He is an Associate Composer and Voting Member of the Canadian Music Centre, and President of New Music North. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University where he studied composition with Dinos Constantinides. A composer of over one hundred works, Carastathis has received commissions from the Canadian Music Centre, Music Canada 2000, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Norman Burgess Memorial Fund, Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Acadia Trio and LSU New Music Ensemble. Carastathis' music has been performed in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia and USA. Many of his works are available through the Canadian Music Centre Distribution Centre and Universal Edition.

Dimos Stephanidis was born on January 17th, 1957 in Athens. In his home country he studied piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. In 1978 he continued his studies in Darmstadt (Germany) in piano, harpsichord and composition. Important stations (composition commissions, selection): 1995: Premiere of the first piano sonata "To the victims of Hiroshima" with the composer at the piano. The autograph of the sonata is in the Hiroshima City Hall. Commissioned by the city of Hiroshima. 1999: World premiere of the literary opera "I see you in a thousand pictures" in Gasteig, Munich. 1999: Premiere of "THEATRIKON" 1 in the Royal Festival Hall in London. 2002: Germany premiere of "THEATRIKON" 1 in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt a.M. 2006: Premiere of “THEATRIKON” 4 in Tokyo Bunka Kaikan under the direction of the composer. 2012: Premiere of the third piano sonata in Darmstadt. Dimos Stephanidis lives and works as a freelance composer in Darmstadt

He sat at the piano for the first time at the age of six. Ektoras Tartanis, born in Stuttgart to Greek parents, conquered his mother's piano as a child. He composed his first works at the age of 12. His early successes at national competitions like "Jugend Musiziert" and "Jugend Komponiert" crowned his career. Tartanis began conducting at the age of 15, laying the foundations for his professional career as a musician, composer and conductor. Tartanis studied music theory, composition and conducting at the University of Music in Stuttgart. An international career grew out of this while he was still a student. He deepened his conducting studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, where he completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors.Over the years, Ektoras’ work has received several recognitions. He received the “Talent im Land" Scholarship from the Robert Bosch Foundation, as well as the Fulbright Scholarship and the Karolos Koun Prize 2022/23 from the Union of Greek Critics as “Young Artist of the Year”. In June 2021, he received the “Special Prize” in the “International Khachaturian Conducting Competition 2021” in Yerevan, Armenia.

Ektoras Tartanis is the Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of South Bavaria since the 23/24 season and is also the 1st Kapellmeister at the Freiburg Theatre since the 2019/20 season.

Conducting both, opera and concert productions in Germany and abroad shaped his international career path. His collaborations with renowned directors such as Herbert Fritsch, Kornél Mundruczó, Andrii Zholdak and Eva-Maria Höckmayr as well as orchestras like the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra and MusicAeterna have been formative for his artistic development. Tartanis worked for several years as musical assistant to Teodor Currentzis, from whom he received important artistic impulses. Alongside conducting, composing continues to be the main focus of his work. His first CD with his own chamber music works was released in June 2024.

Giorgos Papamitrou has studied guitar and composition, and he has attended classes in electronic music and music for media. He is working as a guitar and computer teacher.

Konstantia Gourzi, “Opus Klassik” award-winner as a Composer of the Year in 2023, has enriched contemporary music in a unique way for more than 30 years as a composer, conductor and university professor with her world-exploring sound cosmos and authentic language. She sees composing and conducting as an inseparable relationship that is mutually beneficial. In Konstantia Gourzi's music, one experiences an inner glow and a great dramatic power that does not shout but comes from silence and centering. Her poignant music, which invites reflection, often creates a great effect with just a few instruments. In many of her works, she creates a touching juxtaposition of complexity and simplicity that gets right under your skin.

 

Konstantia Gourzi's compositional work includes works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo pieces as well as works for music theater and film music. Through these, she opens up unique, authentic sound journeys for the listener - an exploration of worlds of perception through music. Gourzi repeatedly engages with social challenges and timeless natural themes: she feels an inner urge to transform these themes through the unique energy of music.

 

Konstantia Gourzi studied piano, composition and conducting in her home city of Athens and at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). She was influenced by composers such as György Kurtág, with whom she worked closely from 1991 to 1996, Isang Yun, Hans Werner Henze, Sofia Gubaidulina, Péter Eötvös, Aribert Reimann and Iannis Xenakis, and as well as by conductors, such as Claudio Abbado, whom she assisted with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1995, Carlos Kleiber, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Günter Wand, Sylvia Caduff and Michael Gielen.

 

Since 1991, Konstantia Gourzi has founded and directed various ensembles, including the ensemble attacca berlin, the Echo Ensemble, the ensemble oktopus and the network and ensemble opus21musikplus. From 1999 to 2007, she was ensemble director of New Music at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, and since 2002 she has held a professorship in the same position at the Academy of Music and Theater in Munich.

 

In recent years, Konstantia Gourzi's commissions have included the ARD Music Competition, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, the Bavarian State Opera, the Venice Biennale, the Grafenegg and Kreisau Festivals, the Lucerne Festival, the Bachchor Salzburg, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Molyvos International Music Festival, the Berlin State Opera and the Tonkünstler Orchestra. She composes for soloists such as Nils Mönkemeyer, Francois Leleux, Dorothee Oberlinger, Julian Prégardien, Danae and Kiveli Dörken and William Youn; as well as for ensembles such as the Minguet Quartet, the Auner Quartet, the Munich Opera Horns, OPERcussion, the Feininger Trio and the Meitar Ensemble.

 

Her discography includes more than 30 recordings, including the labels ECM, GENUIN, NEOS and Sony Classical. Several albums with her music have been nominated for the International Classical Music Awards and the German Record Critics' Award. Several recordings and albums with music by Konstantia Gourzi were released in 2023 and 2024.

 

The pressing desire to create, through the fusion of different musical traditions, connection and respectful coexistence between people from different cultural backgrounds, also constantly inspires Konstantia Gourzi to develop new performance concepts. She regularly collaborates with musicians from other regions of the world as well as with visual artists and dancers and brings new music to unusual performance venues. She is also passionately committed to promoting young talents.

 

As a conductor, she has been focusing on developing special projects in recent years. As "Composer and Conductor in Residence", for example, she curated and conducted innovative formats for the Eigenzeit Festival with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra in 2023 and led the transcultural "Call for Compositions". In 2024, she was commissioned by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival to compose the overture for the opening concert with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. She also presented her program “Connections: 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall” as conductor and composer with opus21musikplus. She curated a musical kaleidoscope on the theme of “Goddesses of Fate” for the Bachchor Salzburg, which she also composed and conducted. At the end of the 2024 season, Konstantia Gourzi was presented to an enthusiastic audience with a portrait concert at the Gezeitenkonzerte.

 

In the 2024/25 season, numerous premieres by Konstantia Gourzi will be performed in various countries, including “The Encounter” with trombonist Mikael Rudolfsson in Costa Rica, “Voyager 1” and the Eternum Saxophone Quartet in Austria and “Atlantis 2” with harpist Elisabeth Plank in Portugal. The premiere of “Saâ” with the Camerata Salzburg and recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger will also take place in Austria in January. This will be followed in Canada by the premiere of “Ypsilon, A Poem for Trumpet and Orchestra in Five Scenes” with trumpeter Simon Höfele under the direction of Daniel Raiskin and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In Germany, the work will be premiered in Stuttgart in March. 

 

Gourzi's orchestral work “Mykene” will also be performed at the Ultraschall Festival with the DSO Orchestra Berlin under Anna Skryleva. As a conductor, Konstantia Gourzi will perform her works “Variation 21” and “Mondaufgang am Meer” with the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra in the new season. Her work “Apollon” will be performed for the first time in Austria with Johannes Fleischmann's “THE TRIO”. She also continues to work on new compositions and performs interdisciplinary new concert formats with her Munich ensemble oktopus.

 

Dr. Susanna Schulz, Juli 2024

 

 

Lina Tonia, is a young award winning composer born in Greece, in 1985. Her work list include more than 100 compositions for orchestra, ensembles, operas and music for theatre that performed in Paris, Vienna, London, New York, Boston, Moscow, Weimar, Berlin, Edinburgh, Zagreb, Sofia, Plovdiv, Tirana, Athens and Thessaloniki.

She has been awarded prizes in several national and international composition competitions for her works. Among others, she received the first prize at the 4th Jungerson International Composition Competition in Moscow (2007), the Baerenreiter Award at the 12th International Via Nova Composition Competition in Weimar (2010), the title of “New Young Artist of the Year” from the Union of Greek Critics for Music and Theatre in Athens (2010).

She awarded with the title “Composer of the Year 2020” from the Federation of American Musicians, Singers and Performing Artists (FAMSPA) at the New York World Music Awards 2020.

She was awarded from the Greek National Opera in Athens, for her chamber opera “The Expelled” (2012) and also at the same year from the Vienna University and Institute Kunsthaus of Muerz, for her work “Kivos” for 12 violoncellos (2012). Her solo work “Neuma” for viola awarded with the Sempre Piu Edition’s Prize in Paris (2014). Her chamber opera “Fear &(s) the Love” performed and awarded in Music Biennale of Zagreb (2015).

Her 5th string quartet “ENNEA” took a premiered by the Arditti Quartet at the Konzerthaus in Mozart Saal in Wien Modern (2015) in Vienna.

She has been invited as guest composer and jury member at Piano Campus International Competition and commissioned to write her piano concerto “Les Mondes Flottants” to be performed as a compulsory piece at the final round of piano competition in Cergy Pontoise (2016).

Her orchestral piece “Squall” performed in Music Biennale of Zagreb by the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dian Tchobanov, and performed by pianist: Srebrenka Poljak (2017).

Her orchestral piece “Butterfly Effect” recorded by the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Pierre Andre Valade in Paris (2017).

She was invited as guest composer by Toshio Hosokawa to the 29th International Takefu Music Festival to give a lecture for her music and get commissions for two new works.

She studied composition at the Department of Music in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2003 – 2008), with Professor Christos Samaras. She completed a PhD in Composition in Edinburgh University with distinction (2008 – 2012) under the supervision of the professor Nigel Osborne and Michael Edwards, where she was studying with a Greek National Scholarship from Union of Greek Composers (2008 – 2009) and IKY Foundation (2009 – 2011). She studied composition with Michael Jarrell at the Vienna University (2012 – 2013). She worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Music Theory & Composition with a fellowship of the Research Committee of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2013 – 2014). She participated in many international composition workshops in USA, UK, Germany, France. She selected to participate at Manifeste Academy for young composers at IRCAM with Toshio Hosokawa, in Paris (2017).

She was founding member and artistic director of Meet the Art, artistic series of concerts and performances around Modern Art in Thessaloniki (2015 – 2016). She is teaching Composition in Macedonia University, Department of Music Art and Science, in Thessaloniki from September of 2016. She gives lectures and seminars around composition and contemporary music. She is a jury member at ENKOR International Music Competition from 2014.

She awarded with the fellowship of IKY foundation to work in a postdoctoral research at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2019 – 2021).

Manos Panayiotakis (1982) is a Greek composer and musicologist (BA Musicology, National Kapodistrian University of Athens; MA, PhD Composition, University of York, funded by State Scholarship Foundation). He studied with composers T.Antoniou and T.Simaku, and with acclaimed flutist I.Glinka. He has collaborated with ensembles and orchestras in Europe and USA, such as ALEA III (Illustration, under G.Schüller, Boston University), Webern Symphony Orchestra (Echosymplokon, under S.Pironkoff, ISCM Vienna), and The Chimera Ensemble. He was a resident composer in Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden 2016). He has taught at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Technical University of Crete, and has presented papers in international conferences (Sibelius Academy, Trinity College, Lithuanian Academy of Music & Theatre, European University Cyprus). The idioms of his works often reflect his cultural heritage. His works have been recorded by Sarton Records and Phasma Music.

Classical guitarist, composer & songwriter. Born in Athens. Holder of a Classical Guitar Diploma, graduated from Delphico Conservatory.He continued with post-diploma studies under the supervision of the world-famous soloist Kostas Grigoreas. He has attended masterclasses with renown soloists such as Hubert Kappel, David Tanenbaum, Michael Chapdelaine, Adam Holzman , David Grimes, Joseph Urshalmi and others. He holds a degree in Harmony, Counterpoint and Fugue. He also holds a diploma in Composition, achieved with Professor Georgios Bisbikopoulos. His music, chamber, orhestrsal and solo is published by NAXOS, PHASMA MUSIC, AN ART ARTISTRY etc. and performing from great artists such as Smaro Gregoriadou, Iwona Glinka, Pawel Kotla, ExQuartet, Tamara Licheli, etc.