The Second Athens Composer/Performer Conference for PhD Students

in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London, St. Catherine’s British Embassy School, Athens, Greece and DEREE – The American College of Greece. 

Performers participating (in alphabetical order):

Enrico Bertelli percussion, Marimel Chrissi soprano, Danae Elenisoprano, Tom Jackson clarinet, Zubin Kanga piano, Krista Martynes clarinet, Drosostalida Moraiti piano, Carla Rees quarter-tone alto flute, Christine Tokatlian piano, Marilyn Wyers, piano

Composers participating (in alphabetical order):   

Thomas Bush, Michael Cryne, Edmund Hunt, Ben Isaacs, Neil March, Ryan Molloy, Michael Oliva, Kelvin Thomson, Jerry Wigens

The combined performer/composer presentations of compositions and papers by PhD students will take place on Friday October 14, 2011 with continuation of presentations and a concert of all the compositions at DEREE – The American College of Greece,  Agia Paraskevi, Athens on Saturday October 15.

Topics for composers and performers to discuss in their presentations will include (but are not limited to):

-microtonal music and how it should be approached by composers and performers

-the role of notation for the performer and composer

-graphic scores:  what is the role of the performer and composer?

-collaboration between the performer and composer in creating a new composition

-scores involving improvisation: what is the role of the composer and performer?

-tuning systems and how they affect composing and performing

The chair of the conference and keynote speaker is composer Professor Roger Redgate, Goldsmiths, University of London. 

Session Chairs and Musicians in Panel Discussion:

Dr. Timothy Ward, Dr. Danae Stefanou, Katrin Zenz, Alexis Porfiriadis, Marietta Kandilaki, Dr. Stuart Bond

Entry to all presentations and concerts is free, but please contact Coreen Morsink at the below email so you can be put on the guest list for both St. Catherine’s British Embassy School and DEREE. 

Coreen Morsink: coreen.morsink@stcatherines.gr

And there’s always beautiful islands to visit and the sea to gaze upon! Andros (above). Syros (below)

St. Catherine’s British Embassy School, Athens Greece http://www.stcatherines.gr/

DEREE – The American College of Greece, http://www.acg.edu/

Biographies of Chairs

Professor Roger Redgate, Head of Composition, Goldsmiths, University of London

Roger Redgate graduated at the Royal College of Music, where he won prizes for composition, violin performance, harmony and counterpoint, studying composition with Edwin Roxburgh and electronic music with Lawrence Casserley. A DAAD scholarship enabled him to study with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber in Freiburg. From 1989 to 1992 he was Northern Arts Composer Fellow, he has lectured at Durhamand NewcastleUniversities. He was invited as guest composer and conductor at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1994 where he received the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for composition. He is conductor and artistic director of Ensemble Exposé, with whom he has performed at many European festivals and on BBC Radio 3 and recently released a CD of music by Brian Ferneyhough.

He has worked in the fields of jazz, improvised music, film and television (including programmes for the BBC and Channel 4), and performance art. His compositions have been performed extensively throughout Europe, Australia and the USA and he has received commissions from the BBC, the French Ministry of Culture, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the Venice Biennale and Ensemble 21 New York. He has published articles on music and culture, the music of Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Finnissy, including a chapter in the book Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy.

CD recordings of his works are available on the Coviello, Oboe Classics, NMC, Metier and Edition Zeitklang labels and further recordings are in preparation due for release on the Metier and NMC labels. His compositions are published by Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris, United Music Publishers, London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Dr. Timothy Ward

Tim Ward is a composer of acousmatic and soundscape music, with particular interests in the creation of multichannel works and the exploration of innovative and unusual performance techniques for this kind of music. In parallel to these activities he is also active as a live performer, exploring a combination of computer technology, circuit bending and instrumental performance.

 Tim studied music as an undergraduate before going on to compete a PhD in composition at the University of York, UK. Now resident in Greece, he teaches in a number of state university music departments and performs with numerous different improvisation ensembles in Athens.

Dr. Danae Stefanou  

Danae Stefanou is a musicologist and performer with special interests in free improvisation, extended performance and indeterminate notation. Born in Athens, Greece, she lived and worked in London for several years until returning to Greece in 2007 to take up her current post as Lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She holds an MA from the University of Nottingham, a PhD from the University of London and a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music with Distinction. Dr Stefanou is one half of the electroacoustic duo Acte Vide and a member of several other improvisation ensembles in Greece. She has recently published a critical Greek translation of Michael Nyman’s Experimental Music: Cage and beyond.

http://danaestefanou.tumblr.com/

Katrin Zenz

http://www.naxos.com/person/Katrin_Zenz/121748.htm

Born in Donaueschingen (Southern Germany) and established since 1993 in Greece, the German flautist Katrin Zenz plays a central role in the performance of contemporary Greek flute music. Her research in the use of extended techniques has brought her into close contact with many composers and subsequently a number of works have been dedicated to her. She is a founding member of the Vivier Trio, the Ensemble Actis, the Ensemble 2:13 and the Trio Windbruecke, as well as being a member of the Ensemble Koeln, the Camerata Athens, and the Ensemble Skalkottas. She has given a number of solo performances at international festivals, including in Paris, Corfu, Donaueschingen, Athens, Stratford, Darmstadt, Volos, Larissa, and Munich. She is also active in various ensembles of free improvisation and has a special interest in non-European musical traditions. Katrin Zenz is Assistant Professor for flute in the Department of Music at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, and teaches regularly at international master-classes (Stratford-on-Avon, Volos, Zagreb, Luxembourg). She has recorded solo and chamber music for flute “Greek Flute Music of the 20th & 21 Centuries” (Naxos 2011), by Iannis Ioannidis (Greek Music Society 1998), by Anastassis Philippakopoulos (Edition Wandelweiser 2006), and numerous other Greek composers.

Alexis Porfiriadis

Alexis Porfiriadis is a composer and improviser currently based in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece. He studied composition with Gerd Kühr (MA, 2002), and Beat Furrer (postgraduate, 2003) at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz/Austria. He has also attended composition classes with Erich Urbanner, Mathias Spahlinger, George Aperghis, Manos Tsangaris, Michalis Lapidakis, York Höller, Enno Poppe. He has been awarded several scholarships, among them the Scholarship for Special Academic Achievements of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Culture, the Scholarship of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, the Music Promotion Price of Graz (2002), the Austrian State grand for Composition (2003/04) and the Molinari Quartet’s International Composition Competition’s Third Prize (2004/05).

As an improviser, he has worked with a number of artists in cross-media collaborations in Greece, Austria and Serbia, and in 2007 he co-founded the large-scale, mixed-media improvisation ensemble 6daEXIt. His compositions have been performed in Europe, in Canada and the U.S.A. He is currently working towards a PhD focusing exclusively on composition for improvisers, supervised by James Saunders.

Dr. Stuart Bond

Dr. Bond, as well as being Head of Upper School and Deputy Headmaster of St. Catherine’s British Embassy School also acts as Principal Moderator for the IB Diploma in Chemistry.  His favourite music is Indie rock but has widespread interests in all music as shown from his role as Chair of Graphic Scores at the First Composer/Performer Conference in 2009 aiding musicians Jerry Wigens, Christopher Redgate and Daniel Schnee in the interesting discussion of their improvisations.  Dr. Bond’s greatest musical influence is Dr. Daniel Schnee.

Marietta Kandilaki, Head of Upperschool music, St. Catherine’s British Embassy School

Marietta Kandilaki studied piano with Sophia Yakoumidou and received her soloist  Diploma from the Model Experimental Conservatory in Athens. She also studied music theory and choir conducting and received her degrees from the same Conservatory. She followed her studies with a Post Graduate Certificate in Music Education fromUniversityofCentral EnglandinBirminghamUK.  She has worked with children of all ages in different schools and since 1994 she is the Head of Upper School Music at St Catherine’s British school. The upper school choir has performed in the Megaron Mousikis in a concert with Stamatis Kraounakis and  in “Stavros tou Notou” backing the rock progressive group Modrec under her direction. She has also worked as a teacher trainer in the pilot program “Melina” and she is a co-writer of the Music Anthologies for lower and Upper school Greek state education.