Iannis Xenakis

In Memoriam International Conference

3-5 November 2011 Nicosia, Cyprus

TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword……………………………………………………………………2 Schedule……………………………………………………………………3 Abstracts……………………………………………………………………7 Installation / Concert Programmes……...……………………………...21 Biographies………………………………………………………….…….38 Conference Scientific Committee Professor Ekaterini Romanou, Associate Professor of Music, European University Cyprus Dr Evis Sammoutis, Assistant Professor of Music, European University Cyprus Professor Makis Solomos, University Paris 8 (Keynote Speaker) Ms Nouritza Matossian (Keynote Speaker) Ms Sharon Kanach (Keynote Speaker) Mr Spyros Sakkas (Keynote Speaker) Dr Rohan de Saram (Keynote Speaker/Performer) Mr Ermis Theodorakis (Keynote Speaker/Performer) Conference Organising Committee Dr Georgia Petroudi, Chair, Department of Arts, European University Cyprus Professor Ekaterini Romanou Dr Evis Sammoutis Mr Fotis Mousoulides Conference Co-ordinators Dr Georgia Petroudi Dr Evis Sammoutis

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FOREWORD On behalf of the Department of Arts, School of Arts and Education Sciences of the European University Cyprus, we would like to welcome you to the Iannis Xenakis – in Memoriam, International Conference in order to pay tribute to this celebrated composer, iconic figure and great thinker of the twentieth century. The conference coincides with the ten-year anniversary of his death, and it aims to shed light on lesser-known aspects of his life and work. In particular, the conference will investigate several strata related to Xenakis, involving not only biographical references to his life but also the evolution of his compositions. Moreover, the thematology will expand and include subjects concerned with the relationship between music and architecture and issues related to performing Xenakis’ music. This conference brings to Cyprus and to our University many distinguished keynote speakers and artists, such as Sharon Kanach, Nouritza Matossian, Spyros Sakkas, Makis Solomos, Rohan de Saram and Ermis Theodorakis, whom we would like to thank for their willingness to contribute their invaluable testimonies and personal experiences to the Memoriam. We would also like to thank our guest speakers who have contributed such interesting topics for thought and discussion. Lastly, we would like to thank our University, European University Cyprus, for its contribution and assistance towards materialising our goal and the Pharos Arts Foundation for its support and for kindly hosting the concerts at the Shoe Factory. We hope that this tribute will shed light on previously unknown and multifaceted aspects of the composer and inspire the participating audience. The Iannis Xenakis – in Memoriam Organising Committee Department of Arts School of Arts and Education Sciences European University Cyprus 3 November 2011

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SCHEDULE THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2011 16.00: REGISTRATION European University Cyprus Cultural Centre Lobby 18.00: PERFORMANCE / INSTALLATION: UPIC-3D Tychonas Michailidis (Birmingham Conservatoire) Jonathan Green (Birmingham City University) European University Cyprus Cultural Centre 20.00: PIANO AND PERCUSSION CONCERT Ermis Theodorakis / Piano Marios Nicolaou / Percussion The Shoe Factory 22.00 – 23.00: FILM SCREENING Something Rich And Strange: A BBC 2 Documentary On Iannis Xenakis Introduced by Nouritza Matossian The Shoe Factory

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FRIDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2011 All sessions today take place in Auditorium A, European University Cyprus. 9.45 – 10.00: Welcome from the Chair of the Department of Arts and the Rector of the European University Cyprus SESSION 1: MAKIS SOLOMOS, CHAIR 10.00 – 10.20: Elsa Kiourtsoglou (Université Paris 8): “Through Archived Traces: Re-Inventing the Creative Process in Xenakis' Architectural Works” 10.20 – 10.40: Iakovos Steinhauer (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität and National and Capodistrian University of Athens): “The Perception of Musical Space in the Music of I. Xenakis” 10.40 – 11.00: Antonios Antonopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): “Stochastic Determinism and Formal Structure in Pithoprakta” 11.00 – 11.15: DISCUSSION 11.15 – 11.40: COFFE BREAK SESSION 2: KATY ROMANOU, CHAIR 11.40 – 12.00: Panayiotis Kokoras (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): “Auditory Fusion in Xenakis’ Pithoprakta” 12.00 – 12.20: Kostas Moschos (Institute for Research on Music & Acoustics): “WEB-UPIC: A Web Application of the Xenakis’ UPIC System” 12.20 – 13.00: Makis Solomos (University Paris 8): “Recent Researches on Xenakis’ Electroacoustic Music” 13.00 – 13.15: DISCUSSION 13.30 – 15.00: LUNCH

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SESSION 3: NOURITZA MATOSSIAN, CHAIR 15.00 – 15.20: Anastasia Georgaki (University of Athens): “Polyagogy, Pedagogy and Cyberagogy: Xenakis’ Dream Comes True!” 15.20– 16.00: Sharon Kanach (Independent Researcher): “The Multiple Legacies of Iannis Xenakis in 2011 and Beyond” 16.00 – 16.15: DISCUSSION 16.15 – 16.40: COFFEE BREAK SESSION 4: FOTIS MOUSOULIDES, CHAIR 16:40 – 17:00: Nikos Ioakeim (University of Athens): “The surd, destruction and death in the music of Iannis Xenakis – An attempt to piece together the composer’s mythology” 17.00 – 17.20: Manos Panayiotakis (The University of York): “Iannis Xenakis: A Stochastic Approach of Orchestration: The Example of Achorripsis” 17.20 – 17.40: Benoît Gibson (University of Évora, Portugal / Unidade de Investigação em Música e Musicologia – UniMeM): “Eridanos by Iannis Xenakis: an Analytical Approach” 17.40 – 18.00: DISCUSSION 20.00: CELLO AND CLARINET CONCERT Rohan De Saram / Cello Angelos Angelides / Clarinet The Shoe Factory 21.30: DINNER

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SATURDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2011 All sessions today take place in the Cultural Centre, European University Cyprus. SESSION 1: EVIS SAMMOUTIS, CHAIR 10.00 – 10.20: Athanasios Zervas (University of Macedonia, Thessalonica, Greece): “XAS for Saxophone Quartet by Iannis Xenakis: Understanding the Compositional Choices through Systematic Analysis” 10.20 – 10.40: Iwona Glinka (University of Athens): “The Use of Flute Techniques in the Music of Iannis Xenakis” 10.40 – 11.00: Lee Tsang (University of Hull): “Beyond Beauty: The Articulated Vowel, Timbral Threads, and Pitch Structures in Xenakis’ Pour Maurice” 11.00 – 11.15: DISCUSSION 11.15 – 11.40: COFFE BREAK SESSION 2: SHARON KANACH, CHAIR 11.40 – 12.20: Nouritza Matossian (Independent Researcher): “Xenakis, Xenagos, Guide to the Future of Music” 12.20 – 12.40: Fotis Mousoulides (University of Athens): “Golden Section and Fibonacci Numbers in Iannis Xenakis Works: Traces of Ancient Greek Mathematics in 20th Century Music” 12.40 – 13.00: COFFE BREAK 13.00 – 13.20: Stéphanos Thomopoulos (Université de la Sorbonne Paris IV): “Evryali and the Arborescences: Graphic Representation as a Tool for Pianists” 13.20 – 14.00: Spyros Sakkas (Independent Researcher): "Iannis Xenakis' Apocryphal Visions" 14.00 – 14.30: DISCUSSION AND CLOSING REMARKS LUNCH AND END OF THE CONFERENCE

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ABSTRACTS FRIDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2011 SESSION 1: Through archived traces: re-inventing the creative process in Xenakis' architectural works. Elsa Kiourtsoglou The aim of this paper is to focus on two architectural projects of Xenakis (Residency for F.B Mâche, Residency for K& R.Reynolds) and to make more visible their conception process, in order to examine certain hypotheses regarding Xenakis' creative process in architecture. For the International Conference in Cyprus, we are going to analyze the results of research in Xenakis' archives in order to make more visible the particular interference of the personal memory in the creative process of his architecture. Xenakis very often mentioned that the creation of any kind of art must be the fruit of a non-memory process, that the work of art must be found at the end of a procedure that is totally new and never thought before. At the same time, he always kept a special place for the memories of certain ambiances coming from his resistance activity in Greece, which gave him the conceptual tools or the material for his music compositions. Additionally, according to some Xenakis' researchers, (M.Solomos, B.Gibson), a particular “recycling” of parts belonging to his older works can be observed in his music compositions. This is not unheard of within architecture, where elements are repeated in architects’ works in more or less obvious ways. Can we really find certain “signatures” repeated in Xenakis' architectural works, and if so, how does he arrive at the production of original works starting with these same elements? Through the archives, we analyze the creative process in architecture as a multidimensional process, in which the architect is trying to construct and inscribe certain relationships with his creative past and, at the same time, to elaborate them in a way of forgetting them and going beyond them.

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The Perception of Musical Space in the Music of Iannis Xenakis Iakovos Steinhauer Because the subjective processes of anticipation and recollection no longer play any part in the perception of musical space in the work of Iannis Xenakis, that space is not perceived as subjective but as external. The effect of his music is to throw musical space out of the listener and into the external world as a projection of the listener. Xenakis separates the participation of music “both in space outside time and in the temporal flux” (Formalized Music, N.Y 1992, p.264). “Temporal architectures” placed outside time build the fundamental order, from where various temporal gestalts can be constructed. The aim of our study is to explore the relations between the mathematical and the empirical musical space in time. Are we obliged to consider the “formalized” technique of Xenakis’ music as more than a mode of organization but as a pattern of perception as well? Xenakis refers to an “intimate connection” (Ibid. p.10) between music and architecture, to a perceptional analogy of empirical and musical space apparent in the sonic and architectural surfaces of Metastaseis and of the Philips Pavilion in Brussels. Can we consequently assume, that the link between temporal and spatial could be found in the visual imagination produced by the music itself? Is the visually/bodily experience of musical structures supported by the spatial arts like architecture perhaps one way to return to a “subjective” perception of his music? Stochastic determinism and formal structure in Pithoprakta Antonios Antonopoulos Source data: In Pithoprakta (1956), probabilistic distributions are mainly provided by radioactive emission equation (radium formula) Px = δ·e-δx·dx

for sonic event differential durations and by Gauss equation f(v) = 2

2

2 α

π

v

ea−

⋅

for mobile sound (glissando) speeds. Recent research data (2008-11): Meas. 0-51 (1st part of the work): intervals are distributed to instrumental lines by means of a radium formula variant: Px = δ·e-δx·m·dx. Segmentation obeys to golden ratio φ. Meas. 52-59 (1st segment of the 2nd part): glissando speeds are supplied by Gaussian distribution tables. However, not all glissando parameters seem to be formalized since neither their limits (starting and ending pitches) nor their directions (ascending – descending vectors) can be determined by

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Gauss equation. As for mass shaping, segmentation and part succession, further analysis is required. Current research results: Meas. 52-59: intervals delimited by starting and ending pitches of continuous glissando lines are distributed to instruments by means of Px = δ·e-δx·m·dx equation. Since all intervals are formalized, the ones connecting or separating segments are formalized too. By this stochastic mechanism, segment meas. 52-59 is formally connected both with the previous (meas. 15-51) and the subsequent one (meas. 60-104). Deductions: Although segment succession procedures derive from principles ruling the interior of masses, probabilistic determinism has no direct effect on their form (shape), because interval directions are not stochastically determined but arbitrarily set. That is, sonic material macroscopic configuration (form) cannot be entirely structured and controlled following stochastic rules only. While form as a whole is freely conceived (intuition), formal planning is graphically mastered and, to a certain degree, mathematically organized. Conclusion: Stochastics govern microstructure and segmentation. Macrostructure (form) is subjected to plastic modulation of the sonic material through graphic elaboration. Both micro and macrostructure are progressing with increasing complexity. SESSION 2: Auditory Fusion in Xenakis’ Pithoprakta Panayiotis Kokoras One of the most important factors that affect the perception of textures depends on the fusion of separate components of the musical passage. The possibility of such fusion occurring is almost certain in some cases. This is due to the way our auditory system is constructed and functions. The main properties that promote fusion in a music passage include a high density of attacks and the timbral similarities of the sounds played. The latter includes various spectral features of the sounds as well as the register the instrumental lines are shared and their dynamic range. This paper uses this set of properties to evaluate and quantify numerous instances in Xenakis’ Pithoprakta (1955-56) where two or more simultaneous sound streams are easily perceived as forming a coherent whole. The density of attacks has been calculated according to the tempo and note time-line based on the score. For the classification of the timbre,

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separate recordings of the instrumental parts have been analysed through a classification computer algorithm. The classification results the degree of similarity among the individual sounds in each moment. A countable examination of these passages provides an interesting survey of a perceptual effect like fusion and contributes to the evaluation of different types of musical textures used in Pithoprakta according to their degree of fusion or separation. WEB-UPIC: a web application of the Xenakis’s UPIC System Kostas Moschos As Xenakis has combined architecture, mathematical curves and music, he had always a dream to create a machine where he could “draw” the music. In 1975 he arrived to develop in CEMAMu the first form of the famous UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du Cemamu) system that can produce sound results through drawing on a digital canvas. With this system, as known, the user can, through drawing, create waveforms, amplitude envelops, sound curves and finally whole electronic music pieces. Xenakis used UPIC for music creation as, for example, in the piece: “Mycene A’”. The UPIC system is a brilliant idea for electronic music creation, not only for composers but also for beginners or children, allowing them to experiment with the music creation even without “knowing” music. Unfortunately, the existing UPIC systems are very expensive and not easily accessible to interested people. For this reason, at the Institute for Research on Music & Acoustics, we have developed, as tribute to Xenakis, the “Web-UPIC” that is a web application simulating the functioning of the original UPIC. Web-UPIC is based on JAVA and is accessible on the Internet for anyone as a real-time application. Web-UPIC, similar to the original one, allows the user, through drawing with the mouse, a tablet or touchscreen, to create many waveforms and amplitude envelops and use them to define “pages” of any duration, with several sound curves. The result is immediately hearable, and the user can use it as material for music creation. In the recent version, some additional options are also available, such as spectral analysis of waveforms and creation of waveforms through spectrum.

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We believe that, through this application, the idea of Xenakis can be spread to the wider public. During the conference, we will reference the Xenakis’s UPIC system, and we will explain our approach and the way of functioning. Recent researches on Xenakis’ electroacoustic music Makis Solomos Xenakis’ electroacoustic works are relatively few in his whole production, but they are very important. Indeed, most of them – from Diamorphoses through to S.709: Concret PH, Bohor, Persepolis, Polytope de Cluny, La Légende d’Eer, Mycènes alpha, Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède, Gendy3… – punctuate the history of electroacoustic music as masterpieces full of originality and innovation. Besides, Xenakis worked both on musique concrète and with electronic music techniques, covering both fields of what is called electroacoustic music. Moreover, his polytopes, where technology plays a major role, are pioneer realizations in the history of multimedia art. As they are composed at important moments of Xenakis’ evolution, these electroacoustic works can also be analyzed to understand the various aspects of his musical, theoretical, aesthetic and interdisciplinary thought: research on noise, granular theory, experimentations on spatialization, inter-artistic realizations… It is also important to notice the fact that these works have a strong relationship with his instrumental music (for instance, there are many affinities between La Légende d’Eer and the orchestral work Jonchaies). SESSION 3: Polyagogy, pedagogy and cyberagogy: Xenakis’ dream comes true! Anastasia Georgaki In our days, Iannis Xenakis stands as one of the mentors of interactive graphic sound composition not only for creative purposes but also for pedagogical ones. Having soon realized the great potential of using interactive computer systems, he invented the very idea of the interface for musical design, as he was interested in linking research with architectural design in many respects. The table of architectural design has been transformed to an interactive acoustic terrain where the image was translated to sound. The sound-design system UPIC or POLYAGOGY (1977), one of his pure technological achievements, stands as an

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autonomous tool outside his theories. This innovative invention not only exalts Xenakis’ pedagogical and compositional approach, but also opens new directions in the conception of virtual music instruments, and especially on interface design as a medium between performer and computer and the interaction between image and sound. In this presentation, we will discuss: a) The theoretical background in acoustics and psychoacoustics on which Xenakis has conceived Polyagogy. We will focus on the correspondence between visual and aural stimuli: the two or three dimensions plus time in space as timbre, pitch and intensity plus time in sound. b) We will examine in which way Polyagogy, as a technological tool and product of a scientific research, stands as a paradigmatic innovative platform for developers of sound design graphic software, which is open to many communities. (It seems that Xenakis didn't want to exclude anybody from "composing" on UPIC; he introduced many groups of dancers, kids, computer-minded people, non-musicians and composers to the UPIC tool). c) Lastly, we will examine in which way Polyagogy and these innovative sound-image tools have been/are used in the music education of children towards a cyberagogy in contemporary e-learning platforms, where creativity is redefined through the sonification of image and the visualization of sound. In conclusion, in this presentation, we will present visionary Xenakis’ scientific thought on the conception of “polyagogy” through the dual interactive morphogenesis of the sound to image and the impact that this tool has in the age of “cyberagogy” on the artistic and education communities. The Multiple Legacies of Iannis Xenakis in 2011 and beyond Sharon Kanach In retrospect, the exhibition “Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary” (which I co-curated with Carey Lovelace), first hosted by The Drawing Center in New York City – beginning in January 2010 – and that has travelled since to four other venues in North America and Europe (it will close at the end of this month in Berlin at the Akademie der Künste) was a jumpstart to many tributes to Xenakis commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death. Sixteen such major events (festivals, symposiums, tours) will be analyzed, observing not only what was

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accomplished, but, perhaps more importantly for the future, what was also left untouched. Such observations will attempt to address possible opportunities to present Xenakis to an ever-broadening audience in the future. Meanwhile, scholarly research based on the Xenakis Archives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France has received an implicit death sentence with the recently imposed new rules: only two days of consultation per week, with a maximum of ten documents per day. Even for Parisian residents, it would take several lifetimes to simply peruse the entire contents of the Archives at such a snail’s pace, never mind artists, musicians and scholars from abroad, most often on short-term research grants. Our goal today is not to question the motivation behind such a radical decision but rather to seek out and propose alternative bases and sources for research and to encourage others to do the same, all with the goal of sharing such results in the most collegial spirit imaginable. SESSION 4: The surd, destruction and death in the music of Iannis Xenakis – An attempt to piece together the composer’s mythology Nikos Ioakeim The paper will examine the origins of the thematology of Xenakis’s works. Going through the derivation of its titles (structural/extramusical) and providing the original excerpts out of the sources, it will show that his ties with Ancient Greek literature were very specific and exclusive (Pre-Socratic era vs. Classical Greece, Homeric epics/Hesiod, Sappho/Anacreon/Pindar), and interacted consistently with the nature of his music. The paper will moreover investigate:

§ Crucial concepts such as the surd (irrational), the chthonic (of the underworld), the monstrous/double-natured (mythical), the primeval/fundamental and that of combat/contest (with its transcendentalist overtones) that became a fixation for the composer and dictated his aesthetics (and vice versa)

§ His interest in language as an inexplicable symbol rather than a transmitter of message (dead languages, relics, invented phonemes, Aeolic dialect/uncontracted vowels, word-coining)

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§ His peculiar/conflicting relationship with Plato (birth of systematic philosophy vs. metaphysics)

§ His inclination towards Athenian tragedy, and particularly the Oresteia of Aeschylus; the specific work and Xenakis’s treatment will be examined as an occasion of setting out the hallmarks of his aesthetics:

1. Rationalism vs. irrationalism (Aeschylean concept) 2. Ritual/archaism/use of percussion as a pre-Classical,

primordial reference (style) 3. Non-European influences 4. Defamiliarization (treatment of the text) 5. Fragmentation (form) 6. Stochastic derivation of the raw materials vs. strong

intentionality of the outcome (methodology) 7. Bringing together disparate elements (heterogeneity)

§ His poetic/quasi mystic attachment to science (utopian visions/Varèse)

The paper will at the end attempt an evaluation of Xenakis’ work, discussing the phenomenon of research exhausting its interest in method at the expense of style. Iannis Xenakis: A stochastic approach of Orchestration. The example of Achorripsis Manos Panayiotakis Orchestration has always been a personal element of the compositional process. Since the dawn of the art of composition, the various combinations of instruments have been used as a timbral palette to form the overall colour of the musical works. During the twentieth century, the parameter of orchestration became more personalised, and each composer developed different ways to organise the orchestral sound or form a functional ensemble according to the personal compositional language. Xenakis’ case was no different. Rejecting the theory of serialism, Xenakis developed his own methodology to provide a personal, stochastic way to combine instruments in order to organise his orchestration/instrumentation, which consists of multiple timbral layers. Emerging from the methodology followed in ‘Achorripsis’, this paper will examine:

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§ Organisation of music material into music events forming the orchestration plan

§ Clouds of sounds and harmonic densities as substantial parameters of Xenakis’ orchestration

§ Orchestration climax through the various stochastic methods used § Aesthetic evaluation of Xenakis’ orchestration methodology § Future developments of 21st century’s orchestration techniques

The essential timbral organisation leads to the invention of a stochastic orchestration, which is based on the main principles comprising the compositional plan of each work. Undoubtedly, Xenakis’ methodology opened wide horizons for developing the formalised thought, placed on an artistic background, and also created a unique balance between the logic and the artistic element. Eridanos by Iannis Xenakis: an Analytical Approach Benoît Gibson Eridanos (1972) for orchestra was composed after a period of intense theoretical concerns, which culminated in the publication of the first English edition of Formalized Music (1971). If, at the beginning of the 1970s, Xenakis' compositional methods were influenced by his new proposals in microsound structure, then, in Eridanos, the composer sought new theoretical grounds. From the notes to the score, we know that he was inspired by the "construction of organisms in the image of polynucleotide genetic chains." Relying on many music examples, graphic representations of the score and written documents found in the Xenakis Archives held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this presentation shows how Xenakis incorporates and treats these ideas in his music. It also demonstrates the particularity of Eridanos in terms of Xenakis's own trajectory.

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SATURDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2011 SESSION 1: XAS for saxophone quartet by Iannis Xenakis: understanding the compositional choices through systematic analysis Athanasios Zervas XAS, although composed in 1987, remains one of the most vibrant and challenging compositions for saxophone quartet even today, in terms of compositional choices, aesthetics and performance challenges. The musical elements Xenakis explores in XAS get redefined within the domain of a new perspective that leads towards a multidimensional design. The microtonal sonorities, the polyrhythmic episodes, the density and the textural fluctuations impose a new perspective - a new craft. The orchestration choices and the distribution of the rhythmic elements reflect, at times, performance attitudes of “improvisatory groups,” prove undoubtedly the structural function of those choices, expand the performance idiosyncrasy of the specific instrumental ensemble and propose a new musical ethos. The formal design of XAS is neither limited by nor attached to archetypes of classicism or romanticism of the Western world; however, the final result and the balance in form reflects qualitative elements of the designs of the absolute art music. The ‘pitch-class set theory’ systematic and comparative analysis employed here is to help understand how the compositional choices of Iannis Xenakis led to a balanced formal design and a vibrant sonic result. The Use of flute techniques in the music of Iannis Xenakis Iwona Glinka The presentation will examine the use of flute in the music of Iannis Xenakis: Zyia: 1952; 2 versions: a) soprano, men’s chorus (minimum 10) and duo (fl, pno); b) soprano, fl, pno; Atrées (ST/10, 3-060962): 1956-62; ensemble (11); Phlegra: 1975; ensemble (11); Akanthos: 1977; soprano and octet (fl, cl, pno, 2 vln, vla, vlc, db); Nyûyô: 1985; quartet of Japanese instruments (shakuhachi, sanger, and 2 kotos); À l’île de Gorée: 1986; harpsichord and ensemble (12); Jalons: 1986; ensemble (15); Waarg: 1988; ensemble (13); Plekto: 1993; sextet (fl, cl, perc, pno, vln, vlc); Échange 1989: bass cl and ensemble (13).

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The intent is to provide a resource for flutists interested in preparing these pieces for performance. A complete description will include the notations used, extended techniques required and general practice issues. Also included is an essay on general performance issues. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a resource for flutists interested in performing contemporary music but who, without proper models or teachers comfortable in the idiom, are unable to penetrate the notation and musical issues. For most new music performers, introduction to contemporary music came by way of an expert, someone who could guide them through the pieces. My presentation is an attempt to provide that “guide”. The music of Xenakis is notorious for its technical difficulty and new found narrative demands on the flute and flutist. Xenakis’ music is one of the extreme exemplifications of complex musical thought. General issues of performance will also be discussed. All references to interpretation are the result of my own work and performance and represent only one way to interpret the piece. They are included to offer an example that will hopefully stimulate the performer to create his or her own interpretation. Beyond beauty: the articulated vowel, timbral threads, and pitch structures in Xenakis’ Pour Maurice Lee Tsang Xenakis’s work for baritone and piano Pour Maurice (1982) can be described as a tour-de-force study of articulated vowels. Stripping the voice bare, the composer leaves pure enunciation, treating the voice as an instrument, as a ‘raw, natural force’ (Rolf Hind, 2005) in music that transcends the conventions of beauty. In this analysis, I aim to offer insights into what Xenakis achieves by moving beyond the strict confines of accepted technique and lay expectations of vocal sonority. The paper is in three parts. First, in line with my researches into the timbral structures of modernist instrumental music (Tsang 2001, 2002), and using a conceptual timbral model after McAdams et al. (1995), I analyze Pour Maurice from the perspective of timbral threads, drawing attention to the vowel and pitch trajectories that are to be found within its ‘brightness’ dimension. Second, I examine in some detail the pitch structures of the voice part in order that the function of the voice can be understood in relation to the piano part and in the context of the work as a whole. Third, I discuss the particular timbral challenges that the work raises from a performance perspective; I explore the practicalities of executing transitions between conventional baritone and falsetto sonorities

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as these offer ambiguities that are of aesthetic interest in terms of the voice’s reception as a dual instrument and the feminised male. The paper will be preceded by a live performance of the work by baritone Lee Tsang and pianist Agata Jozwik. SESSION 2: Xenakis, Xenagos, guide to the future of music Nouritza Matossian This presentation looks at the legacy of Xenakis and some common misconceptions. It aligns his roots in Greece, and his predictions about music integrating technology, the convergence of science and art with digital methods. It gives an overview of Xenakis’ psychological development from childhood and Resistance through to his architecture in Paris with Le Corbusier. It parallels the ruptures in his emotional life with the tensions in his music. It is argued that his philosophical analysis of music initiated a mathematical probabilistic approach in structures taken from nature in direct opposition to the post-war neo-classical avant-garde: Le Couvent de La Tourette and Metastaseis. The author argues against revisionism in the attempts of musicologues to reconstruct and even to “correct” Xenakis’ mathematical calculations. These are not sufficient to recreate the musical score in that they omit the authorship and the personality of Xenakis and lead to the type of misrepresentation that blighted his early career. The author suggests that the non-formalized aspects and attitudes are equally revealing about the visionary pioneer of stochastic music. Golden Section and Fibonacci numbers in Iannis Xenakis works: traces of ancient Greek mathematics in 20th century music Fotis Mousoulides Golden Section and Fibonacci numbers were used by many composers in their works. We can find the Divine proportion in works of Bach, Schubert, Debussy, Bartok, etc. Xenakis used both Golden Section and Fibonacci numbers in his works, especially in his early years as composer. These

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can be found in works like Zyia, Sacrifice, Metastaseis, Psappha, Herma, etc. The paper examines:

1. The connection between the Golden Section and Fibonacci numbers with ancient Greek mathematics and particularly with Euclides and the Pythagoreans. 2. The reasons given by Xenakis for applying the proportions of the Golden Section in composition. 3. The different modes in which Xenakis chose to use the Golden Section and the Fibonacci numbers in his works, observing the development of those modes during the years.

Evryali and the Arborescences: Graphic Representation as a Tool for Pianists Stéphanos Thomopoulos Through his graphic representations, Xenakis is interested in design and in the way it can be transformed into sound. With the Arborescences, he reaches in a certain way a synthesis of his previous pieces of research by introducing a concept which is both a new system of notation and a new way to pour his creative intentions on paper; this way is much more direct, spontaneous and vivid than the already existing conventional notation. Graphic representation is maybe the most eloquent résumé of the work. The design is afterwards codified into conventional notation and becomes the score – the tool used by the performer for the execution of the piece. In this presentation, I plan to explore the link between the pianist’s performance and the graphic representation by closely examining the design, which is found in the source of Evryali. Indeed, this graphic representation can be a precious source of information, considering the fact that the interpretation clues provided by the composer, precise as they might be, are quite scant. Relying on accounts given by performers of Xenakis’s works, and through a thorough examination of Evryali’s design, I will try to define the role of graphic representation in the path that leads the pianist from decrypting to performing the work. Several fields of the performer’s work can be enriched by this contact with the design: a better perception of the global form of the work, an aid to the choice of piano techniques and sonorities,

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solutions to get round the impossibilities of the text without alternating the musical intentions of the composer. Going through this process, we can argue that by using graphic representation as the initial print of an abstract musical idea, Xenakis not only attributes a special sound characteristic to a visual form but also renews the instrumental language of the piano. To achieve a performance of Evryali, the pianist has to abandon traditional pianistic habits and invent new ways, technical as well as psychological, to come to a convincing realisation of the score. This provides more evidence of the fact that Xenakis's work is not on only innovative on a purely compositional level but also paves new paths in the fields of interpretation and performance. Iannis Xenakis' Apocryphal Visions Spyros Sakkas A short story When the ... "physiognomy" of the soul of a man-artist becomes the idol of the vivid artistic ritual, When ... the mind' s arrivisme threatens with a refractive perilousness the delicate and sensitive light and shade that sketch the "idol", When at last, the ancient infantile desire appears, unrolling the thread of liberty, to lead to the "idol's" light, this presents itself immediately and then, through the rapturous strength of its r i t u a l, I am able almost always to discern faintly the p r i s m of the man enlightened from all sides, and within him, I am almost always able to discern ... Prometheus!!

Spyros Sakkas

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INSTALLATION / CONCERT PROGRAMMES THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2011 18.00: PERFORMANCE / INSTALLATION: UPIC-3D Tychonas Michailidis (Birmingham Conservatoire) Jonathan Green (Birmingham City University) European University Cyprus Cultural Centre UPIC-3D is a visually striking, staged performance, paying homage to Xenakis’ own UPIC system. It utilizes new real-time technologies that are now readily available to musicians and brings the tactile manipulation of waveforms to live performance. By manipulating two custom-made hand-held ‘light wands’ on a darkened stage, the performer improvises within a confined physical space, creating a virtual sonic architecture in which waveforms are recalled, manipulated and projected through a three-dimensional surround sound system. The moment-by-moment position of the light wands and the brightness of light they emit (detected using two video cameras) determine which waveforms are played back, the playback speed, the three-dimensional spatialisation, as well as other parameters of other processing algorithms such as granular synthesis. The performer's virtual space reflects the actual performance venue so that, using the light wands, sounds can be spatialised through and around the audience with a clear cause-and-effect.

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20.00: PIANO AND PERCUSSION CONCERT Ermis Theodorakis, Piano Marios Nicolaou, Percussion The Shoe Factory Iannis Xenakis: Six Chansons for solo piano (1951)

Ça sent le musc – Μόσχος µυρίζει J'avais un amour autrefois – Είχα µιαν αγάπη κάποτε

Une perdrix descendait de la montagne – Μια πέρδικα κατέβαινε Trois moines crétois – Τρεις καλόγεροι κρητικοί

Aujourdui le ciel est noir – Σήµερα µαύρος ουρανός Sousta, danse – Σούστα

Herma - Έρµα for solo piano (1960/61) Rebonds A for solo percussion (1987/88) INTERMISSION Rebonds B for solo percussion (1987/88) Evryali – Ευρυάλη for solo piano (1973) Mists for solo piano (1980) á R. (hommage à Ravel) for solo piano (1987)

Ermis Theodorakis Marios Nicolaou

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Six Chansons This work, a set of six short piano pieces written between 1950 and 1951, is Xenakis' second completed composition. Written in the first years that the composer spent in Paris, during which he was trying (as a political refugee) to settle down and simultaneously to compose regularly, this work belongs, together with several other early pieces, to the period prior to the establishment of his personal style and unique aesthetic direction, signified by the work Metastaseis (1953-54). Representing this early period, Six Chansons reflects Xenakis' aesthetic interests of that time, which were mainly orientated towards a style that, similarly to Bartók, incorporates elements of Greek traditional folk music into a contemporary idiom. Every piece presents a Greek folk melody of different character in a tonal/modal – but, in most cases, quite dissonant – harmonic context and in textures that range from almost pure homophony (e.g., piece No. 5, a kind of “choral”) to complex polyphony. Although the style of these pieces is radically different from the one that the composer developed some years later, one could find in it some traces of the mature Xenakis style and make some associations to it; for instance, his preference for dense polyphony can be interpreted as a tendency toward the sound masses he created later, while the rather percussive use of the piano and the rhythmic drive in the 6th piece can be associated with similar features of later works such as Evryali, Psappha and others. Herma This piece was composed in 1960-61 and commissioned by the Japanese pianist Yuji Takahashi, who was for several years the only pianist worldwide who was able to play it. Herma occupies a central position in Xenakis' output, as it is the first piece for a solo instrument that he composed since he founded his style with Metastaseis (1953-54), his de facto opus 1. The works he wrote after Metastaseis and up to that moment were mostly for orchestra/large ensembles (as well as some electronic music), dealing with various forms of sound masses, whose parameters were mostly calculated with the aid of the probability theory (“stochastic music”). Composing for a solo instrument, though, limits the possibilities of producing dense textures and brings the pitch parameter to the foreground. Xenakis responded to this new challenge by introducing the mathematical set theory as a method of pitch organization, which he named “symbolic music”. This term implies

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that the pitches function as symbols of logical operations between sets (and not of extramusical objects, feelings, ideas, etc.); so the 88 pitches that the piano provides are treated equally as absolute numbers, as mere quantities, which can be grouped in various pitch sets, on which logical operations can be performed. The intervallic relationships between pitches and, therefore, the historically “charged” notions of consonance and dissonance are ignored on purpose, at least in theory. The title Herma (meaning bond, foundation, embryo) expresses the composer's intention of founding the music on abstract logical principles, almost “a tabula rasa”, irrespectively of music history up to that point. The main material of the piece consists of three independent sets (choices) of pitches, called A, B and C. These choices have an immediate logical consequence, which is the formation of the sets minus A, minus B and minus C, consisting of the pitches that are not included in the choice of A, B, C, respectively. Further, two more logical operations, conjunction (formation of a new set by adding the elements of two sets) and intersection (formation of a new set by the common elements between two sets) lead to a great variety of product pitch sets. It is not known on which criteria Xenakis made the choices of pitches of the initial sets – these could be arbitrary or based solely on his aesthetic preferences; however, they should fulfil two conditions: a) that it is possible to perform the planned logical operations without obtaining sets that contain zero elements (pitches); b) that the product sets are musically interesting (e.g., containing not too few pitches, being distributed in various registers, having some variety of intervals, etc.). The pitches of the sets are presented stochastically, by defining the average density of each set in sounds per second and distributing the probabilities with the aid of the First Stochastic Law and Poisson's Law; the resulting texture is throughout pointillistic, in order to keep the listener's attention to the pitch sets and to the operations that take place (which the listener, ideally, should follow). Parameters such as dynamic level, average density and use or absence of pedal are attached to every pitch set in order to distinguish it from the others; for the same purpose, several general rests are used. The piece starts with a short introduction, during which the complete material (the 88 pitches of the piano) is presented as one set, with constantly increasing dynamics and density (the latter reaches the – almost unplayable – value of 31 sounds/sec); then, in the first part of the work, the initial pitch sets A, B, C as well as their negations (minus A,

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minus B, minus C) are alternately presented. Sets A, B, C are characterized by a more consonant/diatonic pitch material, quite low densities, mostly soft dynamics and use of pedal, while their negatives sound more dissonant, dry and more active because of higher densities. The second part of the work deals only with product sets; it consists of two processes that find place simultaneously and lead both to the most complex possible product set (deriving from 17 operations performed between the 3 initial sets); during these processes a variety of intermediate product sets occur, which have more moderate but also extremer features (dynamics, density) than the initial sets. Although Herma is focused on exploring the possibilities of this new method of pitch organization, it is by no means an output of a mechanical, rigid application of a theory: an analysis of the pitch sets and their relationships can show that there are several small or bigger deviations from what the sets should be according to the theory; most of these deviations can be interpreted as Xenakis' interventions, which serve musical/aesthetic purposes.

©Ermis Theodorakis Rebonds A & B Percussion instruments play a fundamental role in the music of Xenakis, in terms of both quantity and quality. His total output of some 150 compositions comprises two pieces for solo percussionist — Psappha (1975) and Rebonds (1987-88); three for percussion ensembles —Persephassa (1969, six percussionists who encircle the audience), Pleïades (1978, six percussionists), Okho (1989); three for percussion ensembles with an additional group of musicians — Idmen A (1985, mixed choir and six percussionists), Idmen B (1985, six percussionists and optional choir), Zythos (1996, trombone and six percussionists); four duos with percussion — Dmaathen (1976, with oboe), Komboi (1981, with harpsichord), Kassandra (1987, with baritone), Oophaa (1989, with harpsichord); and finally, two works which allot a solo role to percussion — Aïs (1980, with baritone and orchestra) and O-Mega (1997, with instrumental ensemble)—the latter piece was also Xenakis's final composition. From the qualitative point of view, the composer's use of percussion elucidates at least three major aspects of his music. First of all there is his extraordinary curiosity, which led him to open his mind to musical cultures drawn from the most diverse parts of the world. When he was asked if percussion, which seemingly played such an important role in his works,

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had a special place in his musical aesthetic, Xenakis spontaneously replied that this was probably the case, but that he was not very sure why. He added that he had been especially impressed by the percussion of India, for example, which he felt was one of the key traditions in this repertory, but had also listened to and been attracted by Japanese and African percussion. Doubtless under the influence of Messiaen, whose pupil he was, Xenakis had taken an early interest in the tabla: he owned one himself, and his last 'early' work, Anastenaria, Procession aux eaux claires (1953, for mixed choir, male choir and orchestra) calls for 'a bongo, or Indian tabla', to which it allots a substantial role. On a larger scale, all his music can be viewed as a re-composition, through abstraction, of whole areas of 'global' music (far removed, it goes without saying, from the standardising globalisation indulged in by Western popular music when its cuts and pastes little bits of 'ethnic' music, which are thereby reduced to mere ‘samples’ in every possible sense of the term). The second crucial aspect is rhythm. Whereas, since the 1930s and Varèse's Ionisation, contemporary music had taken a keen interest in percussion instruments for their variety of timbres, Xenakis innovated radically by returning to their primary function of rhythm—though this does not mean he neglected their timbral richness. His first piece for solo percussion, Persephassa, struck like a thunderclap: it begins with rhythmic 'sieves' (cribles) on the membranophones—although it is true that this opening also plays on another element, spatial rotation around the audience. The opening of Psappha, Rebonds B, or certain passages in Okho, for instance, can hold their own with the finest improvisations of African musicians. Yet we are not dealing here with a 'throwback': rhythm in Xenakis has its own special definition. In Western tradition three elements can be distinguished: pulse, rhythm proper and metre. The latter element arranges the pulse into strong (accented) and weak beats in short periods (two, three, four, etc. beats in a bar). The rhythms, which constitute the intermediate level, organise the pulses, their subdivisions and multiplications into figures, cells, phrases, etc. following the model of language. In Xenakis, rhythmic figures are rare; where they exist, they are limited to minimal cells (rhythms from ancient poetry, for example). As to pulse, its only value is as a point of reference for the musicians (with the exception of such pieces as Rebonds). Metre, finally, has disappeared, or else has become considerably more complex and extended, if one identifies it with the rhythmic sieves. Xenakis, as it were, builds his 'rhythms' (in inverted commas, since we are not dealing here with rhythms in the traditional sense of the term) over long durations that combine

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minimal elements: from a rhythmic point of view, his music features only a single temporal layer. In conclusion, it may be said that percussion instruments demonstrate, more than any others, one of the major features of the music of Xenakis: its gestural character. This does not mean gestures superfluous to the music (like those of music theatre, for instance): they emanate from the score itself. One must see Xenakis's percussion music being played to realise that the extreme virtuosity demanded of the performer leads to an ordered succession of gestures, like a speeded-up version of some ancient rite whose meaning is lost to us, and which now constitutes a puzzle, a hieroglyphic. Rebonds, composed in 1987-1989 and premiered, like Psappha, by Xenakis's faithful “house” percussionist Sylvio Gualda, is one of the few works for which the composer chose a title (“Rebounds”) that is easy to understand, at least for a French audience. The work is made up of two piece, A and B; these may not be performed independently of one another, but the musician may choose the order in which they are played. Rebonds A groups the instruments selected by Xenakis into seven (relative) pitches – in descending order, two bongos, three tom-toms and two bass drums. The piece is founded on a process of gradual densification. It opens with a simple rhythmic cell composed of one short and one long note (iambic rhythm), which is transformed into short long (anapaest). Then the process of densification continues with smaller and smaller rhythmic subdivisions (semiquavers, semiquaver triplets, demisemiquavers and demisemiquaver triplets). The piece tends towards the moment at which discontinuity could become continuity – when the separate strokes can only turn into rolls – but never actually reaches this point: they remain rebounds. All through this process, a regular underlying pulse remains clearly audible, as if to provide a standard by which to measure the virtuosity deployed by the musician as he leads us through the multiple stages in this densification. Shortly before the end, the texture abruptly becomes much sparser, and the piece ends with a long silence pierced by two final ricochets. In Rebonds B five woodblocks and five membranophones are positioned at relative pitches. The piece starts out with an extremely bouncy style of playing on the membranophones (rather like the opening of Psappha), with the accents, constantly displaced from one instrument to another, giving the impression of spatial movement of a circular, but irregular type. Then the woodblocks make a brief appearance and the initial rebounds return,

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this time including moments of parenthesis when the playing becomes extremely dense (up to and including rolls). The last section starts with another brief appearance of the woodblocks, which now produce pentatonic melodies. The rest of this section is made up of rapid leaps for the musician who must move quickly from one instrument to another; this leads to a highly virtuosic ending marked by an impression of rapid circular movement among all the instruments, which like a final new incident in the piece, evokes the grandiose conclusion of Persephassa.

©Makis Solomos Evryali Evryali was composed in 1973. The title evokes multiple associations to the music, as many other titles of Xenakis' works do: Evryali (or Euryale) was the name of one of the Gorgons in ancient Greek mythology, who had hair of living snakes – this feature may refer to the idea of arborescences (see below), which is very prominent in this piece; the etymological meaning of the title is “wide sea”, which may refer to the great variety of ideas and characters in the music. The piece makes use of three different types of texture/sonority, which appear in most of Xenakis' works: a) The static/solid texture, consisting of fixed groups of pitches, on which different rhythmic combinations are applied. b) The pointillistic texture, created by the stochastic juxtaposition of pitches with various dynamics and pedal resonance in the flow of time. c) The “arborescences” – a complex, “bush-like” polyphony of various lines, created by the mostly stepwise (chromatic or quasi-chromatic) movement of the voices; this movement resembles/substitutes here glissandi of different speeds, which of course cannot be produced on the piano. The three texture types are presented in the course of the piece mostly in a successive way; in some cases, though, they appear vertically combined. Rhythmically, the piece is based solely on a constant flow of sixteenths, forming thus a grid on which all structural ideas take place. The combination of this rhythmical “primitivism” with the work's structural complexity creates a unique feeling of ecstatic impulse and forward motion. Three general rests (of 12, 6 and 10 seconds respectively) divide the piece in four sections. In the first section, static and pointillistic textures alternate several times in different formations and registers; towards the end of the

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section, the idea of movement in the music space (kinetic idea) – and thus of the arborescences – is suggested by a quasi-melody moving all over the range of the instrument in parallel minor sevenths. The second section, which is the longest of the piece, is dominated by the arborescences, which unfold a great formal diversity and appear in a broad spectrum of constellations (open and close dispositions, vertical combinations with static and pointillistic textures, constantly flowing or interrupted/syncopated rhythms), occasionally being interrupted by static textures. The third section summarizes the kinetic idea by massive movements of the different shapes (static or arborescences) from the extremes of the piano range to the middle register and vice versa. The short fourth section, which functions as a coda, extends this movement idea to the dynamics: While the arborescences remain fixed in a close disposition in the upper middle register, the dynamics increase and then decrease progressively with every chord, forming waves, the period of which decreases; when the wave period reaches the minimum, the piece comes to a sudden end.

Mists Composed in 1980, this works deals – as its title explicitly states – with “sound clouds”, a notion that Xenakis already introduced in 1955 with his orchestra work Pithoprakta, which refers to sound textures of any kind (static, pointillistic, kinetic) that are defined and controlled by means of density (average number of sounds per time unit). The pitch organization is based on the sieve theory, a continuation and extension of the set theory as presented in Herma. Its application on the pitch parameters has a lot of similarities to the set theory, since the same logical operations (negation, conjunction, intersection) are performed on pitch choices; the most important difference is that the initial choices are not arbitrary, but based on simple sieves of one module (i.e., modes consisting of one interval). Using the logical operations, Xenakis constructs complex sieves, where the repetition period of their intervallic sequence is so long that it practically exceeds the range of the instruments; therefore, the obtained scales are called “non-repetitive” or “non-octaviating”. Mists makes use of only one sieve but, through its cyclical transportations (i.e., starting the sieve from a different point), more non-repetitive scales with the same intervallic structure are created. These scales provide a kind of harmonic surface on which all shapes find a place. The sound clouds that appear in the piece can be classified in three categories: a) kinetic clouds created by the linear (stepwise) movement of mostly four parts on the non-repetitive scales in superposed complex

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rhythms, so that only seldom two or more pulses coincide. b) static clouds, whose material (also belonging to the non-repetitive scales) unfolds in the flow of time in a stochastic way, not showing any tendency of movement in the music space, c) arborescences, which proceed in the same way as in Evryali, in close dispositions with complex rhythmical superpositions and pitch material that is chromatic and does not belong to the non-repetitive scales. The work opens with a successive entrance of four parts, leading progressively to the shaping of kinetic clouds, which move from the lowest to the highest register of the piano; this movement is repeated several times, but always with different speed, density, dynamics, etc. A short and strongly contrasting intermediate section follows with a quick, two-part, homorhythmic and mostly contrary motion on the non-repetitive scales. The next section presents extensively the idea of static clouds; these form various shapes and are extremely differentiated by means of density, registers, range, dynamics, articulation and pedal, offering great expressive versatility. The idea of arborescences interferes four times during this section, interrupting the static clouds and introducing new pitch material beyond the non-repetitive scales. At the end of the piece, the first idea of kinetic clouds is recapitulated, and the piece closes with two short arborescence phrases.

à r. (Hommage à Ravel) This short piece was written in 1987, commissioned by Radio France for the 50th anniversary of Maurice Ravel's death. It is a typical work of Xenakis' late period, in which the composer reduces drastically the complexity of his ideas. The kinetic idea is thus here represented by a two-part, homorhythmic, mostly contrary, stepwise motion on non-repetitive scales – in a way similar to the intermediate part of Mists. The scales derive from sieves consisting of smaller intervals than the one in Mists; however, the sieve of Mists appears for a while in the middle of the piece, giving the music instantly another harmonic quality. This kinetic idea is interrupted frequently by the simplest version of static texture: long sustained chords, whose pitches do not belong to the non-repetitive scales but derive from the piece Menuet (5th movement of the suite “Le tombeau de Couperin”) by Maurice Ravel.

©Ermis Theodorakis

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22.00 – 23.00: FILM SCREENING Something Rich And Strange: A BBC 2 Documentary On Iannis Xenakis Introduced by Nouritza Matossian The Shoe Factory Iannis Xenakis recovered from a life-threatening illness in 1990, and his biographer, Nouritza Matossian, proposed this documentary to BBC 2. He flew to Greece with his wife to revisit his old school in Spetsai and his wartime memories, the sources of his music. This compelling portrait of Xenakis, his visual world in nature, architecture, mathematics and acoustic universe has become the most popular film on Xenakis. The film was directed by Mark Kidel, produced by Dennis Marks and co-produced by Nouritza Matossian.

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FRIDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2011 20.00: CELLO AND CLARINET CONCERT Rohan De Saram, Cello Angelos Angelides, Clarinet The Shoe Factory J. S. Bach: 6 Suites for violoncello solo, BWV 1007-1012 (1720) A selection of movements Salvatore Sciarrino: Ai Limiti della Notte, for violoncello solo (1979) Iannis Xenakis: Kottos - Κόττος for violoncello solo (1977) INTERMISSION Iannis Xenakis: Charisma - Χάρισµα for clarinet and violoncello (1971) Iannis Xenakis: Nomos Alpha - Νόµος Άλφα for violoncello solo (1965/66) Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for unaccompanied violoncello, op. 8 (1915) Finale: Allegro molto vivace

Rohan De Saram Angelos Angelides "A great master of form, who possesses a striking individuality; he works in a concentrated fashion and despises any sensation, false brilliance, any extraneous effect." This, said by Béla Bartók for Zoltán Kodály, characterizes all the composers of tonight's programme. Indeed, the works performed in this concert are composed by some of the most individual spirits of Western music: Bach's and Kodály's individuality has been much misinterpreted by 20th century writers, who dubbed them "old fashioned", while Xenakis and Sciarrino are two of the very few valued composers of the 20th century who have not been drifted by post serial torrential currents. Let's add to this profusion of individuality the refreshing absence in tonight's programme of affected "correctness”, mirrored in a collection of movements from Bach's suites, which opens the concert, and the

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performance of only the third movement from Kodály's sonata, which closes it. J. S. Bach, 6 Suites for violoncello solo, BWV 1007-1012 (1720) J.S. Bach's six violoncello suites, (BWV 1007-1012) were most probably written in Cöthen (1717-23), where two accomplished cellists served in the court. The suites are among the earliest pieces written ever for solo violoncello: in the seventeenth century, few works for unaccompanied bass viol were composed in England, and various pieces for violoncello solo were written by some Italian cellists, for instance, two very demanding "sonatas" by Domenico Gabrielli (1659-1690). However, even at the end of the eighteenth century, solo violoncello music was still considered a novelty. Bach's autograph of the set has never been found. The suites were preserved in a copy done by Anna Magdalena in Leipzig. It is not certain if the six works were conceived as an entity; the first three suites are easier to play, while from the fourth on, the difficulties grow. The fourth requires a scordatura tuning, and the sixth is written for a five-string violoncello, known as violoncello piccolo, still in use beyond Italy in the eighteenth century (The suite has been transcribed for a four-stringed instrument). All the violoncello suites have seven movements, of which the first four and the final are as follows in all the suites: 1. Prelude, 2. Allemande, 3. Courante, 4. Sarabande and 7. Gigue. The fifth and sixth movements are Menuet I and II (in the first suite, in G major, and the second, in D minor), Bourrée I and II (in the third suite, in C major, and the fourth, in E flat major) and Gavotte I and II (in the fifth, in C minor, and the sixth, in D major).

Salvatore Sciarrino, Ai Limiti della Notte (1979) Salvatore Sciarrino (Palermo, 1947) calls himself an autodidact (despite the fact that he has worked on electronic music with Franco Evangelisti, after finishing conventional music studies), implying that this is the reason for his originality. The jury that awarded him the Salzburg Music Prize in 2006 was driven to its decision because Sciarrino "has found his own very individual, unmistakable language which in pronounced manner proclaims the possibilities that have been opened up to music beyond serial aestheticism. Sciarrino’s musical handwriting lives initially from soft sounds, which are differentiated in various ways. It thus has its own way of objecting to increasing noise in our environment. Another characteristic of

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Sciarrino’s music is a new weighting of the parameters; its centre is not formed by pitch, it emanates much more strongly from timbre, and by integrating aspects of noise-like sounds, it creates additional extensions. Ultimately the explosive tension between linear sounds and brief, rapid movements is a marked feature of Sciarrino’s music, the merging of impassivity and tense nervousness". Salvatore Sciarrino wrote Ai Limiti della Notte in 1979 for the viola and transcribed it later in that same year for the violoncello. Like much of his music, it is a non-narrative piece (and in that sense, non-temporal) that calls the auditor not to "understand" the music, but to get immersed in it and feel it. Its soft, pulsating sounds (and their rare and subtle disturbances) are not to be followed, but to be sensed. Iannis Xenakis, Kottos - Κόττος (1977) As explained in the score's subtitle, "Kottos [was] one of the three 'hundred-arms' sons of Ouranos (god of the sky) and Gaia (goddess of the earth)." In Greek mythology, the three 'hundred-arms' brothers (the names of the other two are Gyges and Briareus), advancing like a mighty earthquake by the side of Zeus and his Olympian brothers, helped them to overthrow their father Kronos and the other Titans, bombarding them with three-hundred boulders, under which they were buried; thus they gave an end to a ten-year war. Kottos was written for the 1977 "Rostropovich Cello Competition". The work is for that reason more approachable than Nomos Apha, which contains some impossible passages. Nonetheless, Kottos is extremely demanding both technically and musically. Being polyphonic music, it has parts in conflicting rhythms, fast microtonal passages, colour sensitive sounds in the extremes of the instrument's range, extreme dynamics in fast succession, harmonics and glissandi combined, "titanic" energy and peaceful calm; all that, to express the powerful conflict, the cosmic catastrophe, through which, however, a new world order is brought into being. Rohan de Saram, the soloist of tonight's concert, acknowledged by most critics as the ideal interpreter of this work, said, in Sharon Kanach's Performing Xenakis (2010): "Xenakis' second piece for solo cello is, in my opinion, one of the masterpieces of the cello repertoire. Having given the UK premiere of it at the Southbank in London, I frequently include it, and am asked to include it, in my recitals. [...] I believe the success of Kottos is

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largely due to its tight formal structure in addition to the primordial cosmic expression of the material."

Iannis Xenakis, Charisma - Χάρισµα (1971) Charisma for clarinet and cello is a short piece composed in 1971 as a tribute to French composer Jean-Pierre Guézec, a student of Xenakis in the United States, who suffered an untimely death at the age of 37. Xenakis has inscribed under the work's title the following line from the Iliad, Book XXIII: "ψυχὴ δὲ κατὰ χθονὸς ήὐτε καπνὸς ᾢχετο τετριγυῖα" (Then the soul like smoke moved into the earth, grinding). This is from a famous passage in the Iliad, describing Achilles' dream of the dead Patroclus begging him to proceed with his burial, so that his soul will enter the land of the dead. The fact gives a clue to the meaning of the work's title, which is the Greek word for gift. The piece plays with sensitive and imaginative timbral and dynamic transformations of long held notes, only slightly disturbed by an eruption of energetic short sounds. One could conceive the Homeric description of death, given above, as a "programme" to Xenakis' music: the "soul like smoke" being depicted by the long held but continuously varied notes and the grinding expressed by the sudden high notes, the "beats" produced by the interference of slightly differing pitches, the clarinet's multiphonics, the cello scratches, etc.

Iannis Xenakis, Nomos Alpha - Νόµος άλφα (1965/66) Iannis Xenakis wrote Nomos Alpha for violoncello solo in 1965-66 for the cellist Siegfried Palm who gave its first performance in Bremen, in May 1966. The work is dedicated to the memory of Aritoxenos of Tarentum, who founded music theory, and Evariste Galois and Felix Klein, who founded and developed the group theory upon which the composition of Nomos Alpha was based as well as all music called "symbolic" by Xenakis. Nomos is the Greek word for law. In ancient Greek, the word also denoted an important species of serious and highly qualitative hymn or song, which composers should consider as an archetype. As for alpha, it is the name of the first letter of the alphabet and, for ancient Greeks, the first numeral (1).

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As said by Rohan de Saram [Kanach 2010:297], Iannis Xenakis "was one of the most radical musical pioneers of the second half of the 20th century, bringing out latent possibilities in the instruments and voices for which he composed in a way that had lain dormant for years due to the predominance of keyboard thinking. [...] In a work like Nomos Alpha (1966) for solo cello, the pitch material is based on the octave divided into twenty-four quartertones instead of the usual twelve semitones. In addition, the wide diversity of timbre and dynamics he requires plays an important role. The problem one encounters in concert performances of Nomos Alpha is the drastic scordatura of the C string: tuning it down one whole octave then tuning up again to the normal pitches. This happens three times during the piece. [...] These very extreme scordatura tend to affect the instrument adversely, so Xenakis never used them again in his later works.”

Zoltán Kodály, Sonata for unaccompanied violoncello, op. 8 (1915) (finale: Allegro molto vivace) The violoncello sonata, Op. 8, in B minor, was written in 1915 and had its first performance in Budapest in 1918 by Eugene de Kerpely, one of Hungary's leading cellists, to whom it is dedicated. It is in three movements: i Allegro maestoso ma appassionato, ii Adagio con grand' espressione, and iii Allegro molto vivace. Having deeply assimilated the concepts and techniques of Hungarian folk music, Kodály was able to apply them in order to express himself with an extraordinary immediacy. The cello sonata is one of the best examples of this quality, which becomes more valuable due to the scarcity of great works for the violoncello in the first half of the twentieth century. Kodály demands a scordatura tuning, the A and G strings lowered by a semitone. This gives a B minor seventh chord on the open strings, a chord omnipresent in the sonata. The Allegro molto vivace is in sonata form, as is the first movement. (The two outer movements share a number of ideas, including their opening chords). The first thematic group in the finale consists of two musical ideas: one, in the Dorian mode on B, is reminiscent of a folk tune; the other is a four-measure melody in Mixolydian mode on A. The secondary thematic group consists also of two melodies: a folk-like melody in the Mixolydian mode on D, heard against a pedal on D, and a guitar-like tune (triple-stop pizzicatos) in Mixolydian mode on F♯. The tonal cross-relations between the two thematic groups are evident. In the development section,

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all possibilities offered by the instrument are exploited to produce music with the virtues of pure and resourceful folk music: left-hand pizzicato, all kinds of double stops, harmonics, tremolos with the bow and the fingers, etc. In Béla Bartók's words: "The solo sonata for violoncello bears no resemblance whatever to other compositions of this kind [...]. Here Kodály expresses new musical ideas by new and at the same time the simplest possible means for the solo violoncello. And it is precisely the solution of this problem which has given the composer the opportunity to create a technique of an unusual and original style; it is by means of this that he arrives at the production of surprising vocal effects, beyond which or rather above which shines the intrinsic value of the work from the musical aspect" [Suchoff 1976:478].

©Katy Romanou

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BIOGRAPHIES (Alphabetical) Angelos Angelides began clarinet and theory lessons at the age of 9. He was a member of the Cyprus State Youth Orchestra and the then Cyprus State Chamber Orchestra. He pursued further clarinet lessons at the Sychrono Odeio of Thessaloniki under Kosmas Papadopoulos. He holds a Degree in Music Studies from the Faculty of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the LRSM title and received Master classes from Petko Radev and Spiros Mourikis, amongst others. He has held the position of Sub-principal at the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra since 2003. He has given recitals in Thessaloniki (1998, 2004) and Nicosia (2000, 2002, 2005, 2008). Angelos teaches clarinet at music schools in Nicosia and is currently appointed adjunct faculty at the European University Cyprus. Adding to his educational work with the clarinet and chamber music activities, he has been participating in all major musical events of the island from a very young age, collaborating with household names and foreign artists alike. He composed and arranged the music for the theatre shows “Out of the blue(m)” and “Performance”, a production which represented Cyprus in the International Festival for Experimental Theatre in Cairo 2005 and Spain 2006. He is a founding member and Secretariat of the Musicians’ Guild of the Cyprus State Orchestra. Antonios Antonopoulos was awarded a PhD in Iannis Xenakis’s early stochastic techniques (Sorbonne – Paris IV University). He graduated in Pedagogical and Educational Studies (University of Athens) and in Composition. He is a Tutor and Researcher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and a member of the Greek Composers Union (GCU). As an accredited Music Professor and Instructor (E.U. & National Accreditation Centre of Greece), he’s been teaching Music Theoretics since 1986. He is the author of a number of studies and articles on Xenakis’s compositional procedures and on Ancient Greek Music Poetics and Philosophy as well as of From Tonal to Contemporary Music Theory (Athens 1999). He’s been collaborating with the Athens Festival 2011 on Iannis Xenakis by himself – A tribute to Iannis Xenakis, the National Museum of Contemporary Art on 2nd Tribute to Iannis Xenakis – Athens 2009, the National Pedagogical Institute of Greece on the production of 6 DVDs on music education for the primary school (2003-4), and the National Radio of Greece on the production of Μούσα Πολύτροπος radio program on Ancient Greek Music Poetics and Philosophy (2001-02).

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Anastasia Georgaki studied Physics (University of Athens, 1986) and Music (accordion, piano, harmony, counterpoint/Hellenic Conservatory of Athens, 1981-1990). She continued her studies at IRCAM (Paris, 1990-1995) in computer music and music technology (DEA and PhD in Music and Musicology of the XXth century, IRCAM/EHESS). During the period 1995-2002, she has been teaching as a lecturer in Music Acoustics and music technology at the Music Department of the Ionian University at Corfu. Since 2002, she is lecturer and currently Assistant Professor in Music Technology at the Music Department of the University of Athens. Since 2008 she teaches in three different Master programs at the University of Athens and the School of the Fine Arts (music and new media, sound ways off knowledge, digital visual music). She is also supervisor of PhD candidates on the areas of vocal analysis and new media. She has participated in many international computer music and musicological conferences and has published a number of articles concerning the synthesis of the singing voice, interactive music systems, Greek electroacoustic music (Xenakis, Adamis, Logothetis), physical modelling of instruments, and music technology in education. She has served as a member of the organizing committee and chaired five symposia: music and computers (Ionian University, 1998), First Greek Symposium on Music Informatics (Ionian University, 2000), International Symposium Iannis Xenakis (University of Athens, 2005), SMC07 (Lefkada, 2007) and Pythagorean views on music and mathematics (Pythagorion, 2009). She has collaborated also with the Greek Research Institute ILSP on music information retrieval European projects (Wedelmusic), with IEMA, with the Voice Lab of the Computer Science Department, with the Onassis Foundation Cultural Center, with IRCAM, etc. Her research projects focus on the analysis and acoustics/psychoacoustics of the Greek singing voice, controlling synthetic voices through a MIDI-accordion, and also the development of tools for the application of new technologies in music creation and technology in education. She is a member of numerous committees in Greece and abroad. She is also a professional accordion player (www.novitango.gr) and active musician. Benoît Gibson studied viola, music theory and analysis at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal in Canada. He then completed a PhD at the École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris. He is presently teaching music analysis at the University of Évora (Portugal) where he also directs the Research Unit in Music and Musicology (UnIMeM). He has recently written a book on the instrumental music of Iannis Xenakis, published by Pendragon Press.

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Iwona Glinka was born in Kwidzyn, Poland. At the age of 18, she graduated from the Musical Lyceum of Gdansk with a flute diploma and with the highest distinction with a parallel specialization on teaching (class of Elzbieta Czapor). She continued her studies in the Music Academy of Gdansk (class of Krzystof Langman), and in 1994 she graduated with a Master of Music in Performance. From 1991-94, with the Baloise Holding Scholarship Found, she attended the Summer Courses of the Music Academy of Lenk in Switzerland with Peter-Lukas Graf. In 1992, with a scholarship from the mayor of the city of Darmstadt in Germany, she attended the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik where she studied with Pierre-Yves Artaud. From 1996, she followed a further period of studies in Accademia Internationale Superiore di Musica in Biella, Italy with Peter-Lukas Graf and later in Paris, France, with Pierre-Yves Artaud. She has given many solo recitals with classical and contemporary repertoire, and she appears as Principal Flutist in orchestras and chamber ensembles in Greece and abroad (Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and USA). She has developed a great interest in contemporary music and premiered many works of Greek, Polish and American composers, some of them written especially for her. Since 1995 she lives permanently in Greece. She teaches flute and chamber music at the Municipal Conservatories of Patra and Glyfada and at the conservatory “Musical Horizons” in Athens. She is Principal Flute of the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Athens, and she is soloist of the Hellenic Contemporary Music Ensemble of Theodore Antoniou. She was chosen as a performer for the 5th Slovenian Flute Festival (2004), the Third Flute Festival in Madison in USA (2006) and the Sir James Galway master class held in Weggis (Switzerland) in August 2007. In May of 2009, she obtained DMA at the Academy of Music in Cracow (class of Barbara Swiatek- Zelazny) on the "Composer's technique in view of interpretation in flute music of Brian Ferneyhough". She is PhD candidate at the University of Athens (Department of Musical Studies) with the topic “The study of Greek solo flute music 1945-2008”. Jonathan Green studied classical composition at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Academy of Music in Cracow and now works as a sound engineer specialising in new music as well as studying for a PhD at Birmingham City University on the utilisation of motion capture technology in music composition and performance. As a sound engineer specialising in contemporary classical music, Jonathan has worked throughout the UK and Europe, most notably with the London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Streetwise Opera, AGON (Milan),

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Athelas Sinfonietta (Copenhagen), IRCAM, Sound Intermedia and the BBC Proms. He has worked with, amongst others, Jonathan Harvey, Julian Anderson, Phillipe Leroux, Oliver Knussen, Mira Calix and Luca Francesconi and has performed Anthemes II for Pierre Boulez. Nikos Ioakeim was born in 1978 in Athens, Greece. He studied the piano intermittently until 1998. From 1996 until 2005, he studied music theory with Spyros Klapsis and Yannis Ioannidis, while simultaneously studying musicology at the University of Athens (BA, 2004). He is a PhD candidate at the same institution, elaborating a thesis on the oeuvre of Aaron Copland – topic: The approach of atonality, and the use of serial techniques in search of a new style in the late music of Aaron Copland as the crowning achievement of a discontinued progress. In 2005 he immigrated into the Netherlands, where he studied composition with Klaas de Vries, electronic composition with René Uijlenhoet and improvisation under Henri Bok, Willem Tanke, Henri Tournier and Simon Rigter at Codarts, University of Arts Rotterdam (Bmus, 2009). He also studied composition briefly with Frank Nuyts as an E.R.A.S.M.U.S. exchange at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, Belgium (2008-2009). He has been selected to take part in various composition workshops and competitions, such as Asko 8x7 (2007), Nieuw Ensemble (2008), Tromp Festival Concours (2008), Prometheus Ensemble (2009), Holland Symfonia PJC (2009), The fascinating sound of the Gamelan (Ensemble Gending, 2009), YCM (Orkest De Ereprijs, 2010), Young Masters XXI (2010), and HB & TMOprijs (2011). His music has been included in festivals such as Gaudeamus Music Week, Red Sound9, November Music, Voorwaarts Maart/En avant Mars. He has written music on commission by the Duo Hevans, the pianoduo Aurea, the Cheiron Trio, the ensemble f.c. jongbloed, Naoko Kikuchi & Teresa Matias, the Kameroperahuis Zwolle and the accordeonduo TOEAC & the NJO Kamerorkest. The American musician Sharon Kanach has lived in France for the past thirty years. She originally went to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger. Very quickly, however, her path crossed that of Iannis Xenakis, with whom she collaborated closely, especially on his writings. First, she translated Arts/Sciences: Alloys, followed by a new, revised, and enlarged edition of his seminal Formalized Music, both for Pendragon Press. In 2006, Editions Parenthèses published Xenakis’s Musique de l’Architecture in French, which Kanach co-authored, released in a distinct edition also by Pendragon Press, Fall 2008, under the title Music and Architecture. Kanach was also the musical assistant of the Italian composer Giacinto

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Scelsi during the last ten years of his life. A trilogy of his collected writings was realized under her coordination by Actes Sud in France between 2006 and 2008: Les anges sont ailleurs … (texts and unpublished papers on music and art), L’Homme du son (poetry), and Il Sogno 101 (memoirs). A single volume collection of these three books will be published in English by Pendragon Press in 2012/13. Sharon Kanach oversees the publication of both composers’ scores at Editions Salabert – Universal Publishing, Paris. Elsa Kiourtsoglou (1981) is an architect and current PhD fellow in architecture at the University of Paris 8 (Department of Philosophy) and in the Ecole d'Architecture la Villette (ENSAPLV), EA 4008 LLCP / École Doctorale Pratiques et Théories du Sens. She is a Leventis and Mihelis foundation scholar. She began her studies in the Department of Architecture in Volos (1999-2005), and she continued her studies at the National Polytechnic University of Athens (2006-08) where she received her master’s degree. Her first article on Xenakis' architecture was published in France in the collective tome L'activité artistique et spatialité, L'Harmattan, 2010. At the same time, she participated as an artist (installation & performance) in various expositions (Biennale of Art of Athens, Landscape Biennale of Barcelone, Centre of Mediterranean Architecture in Crete, Gallerie Nees Morfes in Athens, etc.). She lives and works in Paris. Panayiotis A. Kokoras (Greece, 1974) completed his musical training in composition and in classical guitar in Athens. Afterwards, he continued in England where he obtained a Master and a PhD in composition at the University of York. He is currently teaching Electroacoustic Composition at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is founding member and president of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA). Panayiotis Kokoras’ sound compositions develop functional classification and matching sound systems written on what he calls Holophonic Musical Texture. His compositional output consists of 50 works ranging from solo, ensemble and orchestral works to mixed media, improvisation and tape. His array of achievements includes commissions from the FROMM (Harvard University), IRCAM (Paris), MATA (New York), IMEB (Bourges) and ZKM (Karlsruhe) and 40 distinctions and prizes at international competitions, among others, Prix Ars Electronica 2011 (Austria), Métamorphoses 2010 & 2000 (Belgium), Giga-Hertz Music Award 2009 (Germany), Bourges 2009, 2008 and 2004 (France), Gianni Bergamo 2007 (Switzerland), Pierre Schaeffer 2005 (Italy), Musica Viva 2005 and 2002 (Portugal), Gaudeamus 2004 and 2003 (Holland),

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Jurgenson Competition 2003 (Russia) and Takemitsu Composition Award 2002 (Japan). Moreover, his works have been selected by juries at more than 120 international call for music opportunities and performed in over 70 cities around the world. His music appears in 30 CD compilations by Miso Records, SAN / CEC, Independent Opposition Records, ICMC2004, LOSS, Host Artists Group, Dissonance Records, Musica Nova, Computer Music Journal (MIT Press) and others. www.panayiotiskokoras.com Nouritza Matossian is one of the world’s leading experts on Iannis Xenakis. She published the first biography and critical study of his work, Iannis Xenakis (Fayard, 1981; Kahn & Averill, 1986&1991; Moufflon Publications, 2005) after ten years close collaboration with him. The book has become an essential reading for students and performers of Xenakis. Matossian collaborated with Dennis Marks on the documentary film on Xenakis for BBC2, Something Rich and Strange. She studied and interviewed major avant-garde composers such as Berio, Boulez, Stockhausen and Scelsi. Nouritza Matossian introduced live electroacoustic and synthesized music for the first time in Cyprus in 1973 with the Cyprus Music Workshop, Lapithos, which toured the island before the Turkish invasion of 1974. Her biography of the Armenian American artist, Black Angel, A Life of Arshile Gorky (1998, Random House) was made into the award-winning feature, Ararat, by Atom Egoyan. She performs her one-woman show, The Double Life of Arshile Gorky, worldwide. Matossian lectures, broadcasts on the BBC and writes for British newspapers. Her film on an Armenian editor who was murdered in Turkey in 2007, A Heart of Two Nations, Hrant Dink, won the Public’s Prize in the Pomegranate Armenian Film Festival in Toronto. Born in Cyprus of Armenian parents and educated in England, Nouritza Matossian read Philosophy at the University of London, studied music, theatre and mime in Germany, Dartington and Paris; she has a command of nine languages. She has also served as Honorary Cultural Attaché to the Armenian Embassy and is an activist in human rights. She lives in London with her family – composer Rolf Gehlhaar and their sons, Hagop and Vahakn. Tychonas Michailidis is a composer/performer currently based in Birmingham, UK. He studied music technology at Anglia Ruskin University and holds a Master degree in digital arts from Birmingham City University. His musical approach focuses on exploring sound through live interaction with sensor technology. Currently, he is working on a PhD exploring the

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usability of haptic feedback in live electronic music at Birmingham Conservatoire. He is a member of the (HELMCA) Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association in Greece. He is supporting the Integra project, a European program led by Birmingham Conservatoire, on technical, musical, and software issues. He is also the technical advisor for the Avaton Music Festival. Born in Athens, Kostas Moschos studied musical theory and composition in Athens, electronic music (H. U. Humpert), computer music (Cl. Barlow), music phenomenology and conducting (S. Celibidache) and musicology in France and Germany. He followed several composition seminars with I. Xenakis, P. Boulez, St. Reich, and KH. Stockhausen. He is active as Composer, Researcher and Music Educator. As composer, he has composed 60 pieces in several forms, including music for the theatre, cinema, dance and interactive music installations. He is a pioneer of computer music in Greece, starting to use computers in music from 1978 for algorithmic composition and real-time interactive installation systems. He has presented interactive computer music systems at ICMC in Cologne, Darmstadt Summer Academy, Patras Festval, Athens Petra percussion festival, “e-phos” festival in Athens, Computing in Music IV festival in Cologne, etc. He worked on several studios, such as the Electronic Music Studio of Music Academy in Cologne, the ICEM in Essen and STEIM in Amsterdam, the studio of Basel Academy and in Athens. He has taught music and technology in several Universities and Music Academies, including the Athens University of Fine Arts, and he is currently teaching Music Technology at the Athens Conservatory. Since 1989 he lives in Athens where he is co-founder and director of the Institute for Research on Music & Acoustics (IEMA) and of the Greek Music Documentation and Information Centre. As researcher, apart from the creative and computer music researches, he was involved in many other research projects, such as Composers Work Catalogues, the Reconstruction of Ancient Hydraulic Organ, Automated Systems of Music Coding and Retrieval, the Acoustics of Open Theatres, Distance Learning of Music, Interactive Music Installations, Web Music Creation Interactions, Digitization of Music and Digital Music Archives. He is member of the national committee for Music Education and the “Digital School” national project.

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Fotis Mousoulides took part in several concerts and recordings in Cyprus, Greece, England, France and Austria as an accordion player. In 2000, he completed his undergraduate studies in musicology at the University of Athens - department of music studies, and he is currently a PhD candidate at the same department. The title of his dissertation is ‘The Pythagorean tradition in the work of Iannis Xenakis’. From 2004, he has been working in Cyprus as a music teacher, composer, orchestrator, choir director and accordion player. Marios Nicolaou was born in Limassol in 1974. He studied at the Athens Conservatory (class of D. Marinakis) and at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with C. Caskel and C. Tarcha and graduated with “Auszeichnung”. He has also worked with P. Sadlo and Rainer Seegers in master classes and private lessons. In 2005 he took part at the International Ensemble Modern Academy (Schwaz/Austria). Marios has been a holder of the “Alexandra Trianti” scholarship of the “Friends of Music Society”. In 2000 appeared as a soloist on the Timpani with the Cyprus State Orchestra, performing the Concertino for Timpani, Percussion and Strings by A. Panufnik. He has worked with many orchestras in Germany, such as the Gürzenich Orchester - Kölner Philharmoniker, the Neues Rheinisches Kammerοrchester and the Kölner Jugendorchester. Since 2003 he has been collaborating with most of the Greek orchestras (Athens State Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata, Orchestra of colors). As a chamber musician, Marios has worked with H. Lachenmann, P. Eötvös, F. Ollu, D. Bouliane, the Ensemble neue music Koln and the ensemble dissonArt. He took part in festivals such as the Pierre Boulez zum `75 (in Cologne Philharmony) and at the Minimal Music Kassel. Performing the Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion by B. Bartók, he appeared at the Klavier Festival Ruhr. Since 2009 he is a member of the Ergon Ensemble. Manos Panayiotakis was born in Herakleion, Crete, Greece in 1982. He studied musicology at the University of Athens and theory of music with Dimitri Sykias, flute with Iwona Glinka and composition with Theodore Antoniou at conservatory “Musical Horizons” in Athens. In 2007 he graduated with a masters degree in Composition, and in 2011 he finished his PhD in Composition, supervised by Thomas Simaku at the University of York. His works have been performed in several countries, among others, Greece, United Kingdom, and USA. The works "Talus" for Piccolo and Tam tam and "Lux Perpetua" for Flute Solo were awarded the first prize at the Composition competition of Volos and the third prize at the InterArtia Festival, respectively. He has also attended miscellaneous

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seminars and workshops about composition, performance and analysis with the Kreutzer Quartet, Stefan Ostersjo, Karl Zachter, Theodore Antoniou, Alexandros Kalogeras and others. Today his musical interests are focused on compositional research about the relations of modality and spectrality and flute performance, especially aspects regarding the instrument's extended techniques. Spyros Sakkas is an internationally renowned Greek baritone, stage director, Professor of vocal art and director of the Workshop for Vocal Research in Athens. He has appeared in the greatest musical centres over the world (London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Munich etc) and famous festivals in Avignon, Aix en Province, Paris, Warsaw, «Proms London», «Romaeuropa», Barcelona, Milano, Florence, etc. He champions the international classic and contemporary repertory and passionately supports Greek song from antiquity to the present as well as for the international qualitative song. He performs with the greatest orchestras in the world: “Camerata Academica”, “Mozarteun Orchester” (Salzburg), “B.B.C Symphony Orchestra”, “The Philharmonia” (London), “Bayerischer Runfunk Symphonic” (Munich), “Orchestre Nationale de Paris”, “Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique” (Paris), «Toscanini Symphony Orchestra”, “Suisse Romaine Symphony Orchestra”, under famous conductors, such as: R. Kempe, E. Kubelik, J. Keilberth, B. Paumgartner, P. Dervaux, M. Janowsky, E. P Salonen, Z. Mehta, M. Tabachnik, A. Tamayo, P. Eotvos etc. His art has inspired excellent works by many famous composers, as J. Cage, G. Crumb, I. Xenakis, J. Taverner, W. Rihm, G. Bialas, Th. Antoniou, W. Killmayer, R. Koering, W.Ligetti, I. Christou, G. Apergis, G. Couroupos, W. Hiller, A. Essyad, N. Mamangakis, M.Hatzidakis and a lot more. He has been a professor of vocal art and director of Opera Departments at the “Catholic University” Washington D.C (1973-76), “Philadelphia Musical Academy” and “Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts”(1977-1990, USA), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1994-2004). In 1972 he founded in the USA the «Workshop for Vocal Art», which is still today in operation in Athens as well. Among the 600 musical-theatrical world premieres that he has performed, close to 250 were written specially for his voice. Sakkas and Iannis Xenakis had been close friends and collaborators during 25 years; they have in common investigated avant-garde techniques and the possibilities of human voice. Their first acquaintance was in 1976 for the Polytope of Mycenae, and since then they worked together on compositions written specially for Spyros Sakkas: Ais, Kassandra, Pour Maurice, and La déesse Athéna.

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Recognised as a child prodigy, Rohan de Saram made his name as a teenager in the classical repertoire of concertos and sonatas with piano as well as solo cello. He has performed with the major orchestras of Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and the former Soviet Union with such conductors as John Barbirolli, Adrian Boult, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa and William Steinberg. After the UK premiere of Il Ritorno degli Snovidenia for cello and orchestra, Berio said of cellist Rohan de Saram: "Your performance of Ritorno is splendid, but besides Ritorno, your sound, your perfect intonation, your phrasing and bowing technique, make you a great performer of any music." As a result, Berio wrote for him his final Sequenza, No. XIV for solo cello which, as a tribute to Rohan, includes large sections based on the rhythms of the Kandyan drum of Sri Lanka, an instrument which Rohan himself has played since his childhood in Sri Lanka. Since returning to solo work in November 2005 after the years with the Arditti Quartet, Rohan has pursued a most challenging exploration of repertoire, collaborators and venues, driven by a profound desire to explore new modes, new composers, new musical cultures and new possibilities worldwide, and having inspired in the process a considerable expansion of the cello repertoire. Rohan has performed a continuous stream of original works written specially for him in new instrumental combinations such as bassoon and cello (with Pascal Gallois), double-bass and cello (with Stefano Scodanibbio), flute and cello (with Carin Levine, Richard Craig, Roberto Fabbriciani), and guitar and cello (with Magnus Andersson and Jonathan Leathwood). His new CD, Harmonic Labyrinth, was released by First hand Records n August this year and is available on Amazon. For more information please visit: www.rohandesaram.co.uk Makis Solomos was born in 1962 in Greece, and he has been living in France since 1980. He is Professor of Musicology at Université Paris 8. Widely recognized as an expert on Xenakis, he completed a PhD on the notion of “sonority”. He has written many articles and papers dealing with new questions, and he completed two books: Iannis Xenakis – Mercuès, PO Editions, 1996; updated in 2004, and, To syban enos idiotypou dimiourgou (the universe of a singular composer) – Athens, Alexandreia, 2008 as well as organizing many conferences throughout the world. He also published a detailed commented bibliography of writings of/on Xenakis and the first Greek edition of Xenakis’ writings on music and architecture (Keimena peri moussikis kai architektonikis, Athens, Psychogios, 2001), and organized, along with the Cdmc and Radio France, Paris, the first international symposium on Xenakis in 1998 and the International Symposium Iannis Xenakis in 2005. Makis Solomos is

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also the author of numerous publications about recent music and the co-founder of the review Filigrane. Musique, esthétique, sciences, société. His new book (forthcoming publication) is: De la musique au son. L’émergence du son dans la musique récente. Solomos is also preparing a book about Xenakis’ electroacoustic music. Iakovos Steinhauer studied Musicology and Arts History at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt and continued his studies in Music Theory and Composition at Dr. Hochs Konservatorium, Frankfurt. He holds a diploma in Sound Engineering from SAE (School of Audio Engineering), and he also attended the 1995 Music and Technology-Workshop at Institut für Neue Musik, Darmstadt. He had Composition Seminars with Professor Müller-Hornbach at Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt. From 1995-1999, he was Student Research Assistant at the Insitute of Musicology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität and, in 1999, obtained a Magister-Diploma. From 2000-2003, he had a Scholarship from the interdisciplinary Graduate College Experience of Time and Aesthetic Perception (Zeiterfahrung und ästhetische Wahrnehmung), Film, Theater- and Media-Institute, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität and Theatre-Compositions at the National Theatres in Wiesbaden and Mannheim (directed by Laurent Chétouane). He was awarded a PhD in 2005 from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität. The theme of his Thesis was: “Musical Space and Compositional Object in the Work of Edgard Varèse” (“Musikalischer Raum und kompositorischer Gegenstand bei Edgard Varèse”). Since 2005, he has worked on the Habilitation-Project in Aesthetics of Film Music. In 2007, he was awarded a Scholarship by “Paul Sacher Stiftung”, Basel, for research in the E.Varèse-archives and, from 2007-2009, a scholarship by “Fazit-Stiftung”, Frankfurt, for the Habilitation-Project. From 2008, he has been a Contract Lecturer at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität (Aesthetics, Film Music, Music of the 20th Century), and in 2009/2010, he became Assistant Professor at the Institute of Musicology, “Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität” and Contract Lecturer at the Faculty of Music Studies, National and Capodistrian University of Athens. Ermis Theodorakis began his piano studies in 1990 in Athens with Nilyan Perez-Ioannidis, and in January 1996, he obtained his Piano Diploma at the Athens Music Society Conservatory along with a special “Iannis Xenakis” prize for his interpretation of Xenakis’ Mists. He studied composition in Athens with Yannis Ioannidis (Diploma in 2002) and Musicology at the University of Athens (Degree in 2004). He completed his

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piano studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Håkon Austbø (Master’s Degree in 2004) and furthered his composition studies in Amsterdam with Wim Henderickx (Bachelor Diploma in 2006), and Leipzig with Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (Post-Graduate Diploma in 2009). Ermis Theodorakis has been active as a soloist in various countries including Holland, Cyprus, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Ghana, Chile, UK and the USA as well as in numerous German and Greek cities. Theodorakis attaches emphasis to the interpretation of contemporary music, having given the first performances of many works by contemporary composers and having recorded eight solo CDs of contemporary piano music (New Viennese School piano music, The Complete Piano Works by Iannis Xenakis, Yannis Ioannidis, Yorgo Sicilianos, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, as well as piano pieces by various Greek composers). As a composer, he has written chamber music and solo pieces, which have been performed in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium and Chile. Ermis Theodorakis has been awarded a prize by the Greek Union of Music and Drama Critics for his recording of the complete piano solo works by Iannis Xenakis and a UNESCO prize for his services to Greek Contemporary music. In 2006, he was awarded two prizes (SACEM prize and Special Mention A. Boucourechliev) at the 7th International 20th Century Piano Competition in Orleans (France). In 2008, he was visiting professor at the Composition Department of the University of Chile in Santiago. Iannis Xenakis, in a recommendation letter for Ermis Theodorakis, stated that he considered him an ideal interpreter of his music. After studying in Greece and Germany, Stephanos Thomopoulos worked with Jacques Rouvier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, obtaining his diploma in 2001, and then Hakon Austbo in the Conservatorium of Amsterdam, obtaining a Master’s degree in 2005. He is currently pursuing a Performance Doctorate at the Conservatoire de Paris-University of Paris IV (Sorbonne) under the direction of Gérard Pesson and Jean-Yves Bosseur. He is a laureate of several international competitions (Holland Music Sessions, Maria Canals, Hellexpo, Jugend Musiziert) and a grantee of the Kempff Foundation. Stephanos Thomopoulos performed throughout Europe, the Middle East, and South America, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Epidaure Antique Theater, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, and the Cecilia Mireiles Hall in Rio de Janeiro. He has recorded works of Alexander Scriabin for the Mécénat Musical de la Société Générale and works of Manos Hadjidakis for the Italian foundation CIMA. In 2010, he recorded the complete solo piano works of Iannis Xenakis with support from the Meyer Foundation as

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well as Synaphaï, the legendary first piano concerto of Xenakis, with the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire. His taste for experimental projects have brought him to perform in Heinrich von Kleist’s La Marquise d’Ô, directed by Lukas Hemleb, as well as in the adaptation of Bizet’s Arlesienne in a form of a theatrical tale at the Musée d’Orsay in February and March 2010. He is a member of the 12-pianist ensemble Piandemonium. Lee Tsang is Director of Performance at the University of Hull, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and founding Managing and Artistic Director for Hull Sinfonietta. He was educated at the Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East Anglia, Lancaster and Southampton, obtaining a first class BA (Hons) degree in Music, a MMus degree with distinction in Conducting Studies and a PhD in Music. His awards include the David Barlow Memorial Award for academic achievement (1995), a British Academy scholarship (1996–9) and a Vice Chancellor’s Prize (2005) from the University of Hull for his work with Hull Sinfonietta. Active as both a conductor and singer, he performs regularly throughout the UK and at major conferences. His projects, which frequently combine collaborative research and musical practice, include: a filmed production of Webern’s unpublished stage-play Dead for the instructive DVD Musicology on Film: Vol. 1 (2006); a music-film, Lear Settings, featuring music by Borthwick, the voice of Sarah Leonard and work by animator Rozi Fuller (2009); premieres combining western and non-western instruments such as Borthwick’s Equiano’s Lament for choir, soloists, orchestra and kora (Wilberforce 2007), and Richard Tsang’s The Music is but Momentary (Consolation) for guzheng and conducted chamber ensemble (2010); and the performance and publication of new songs in Finding Ursula Vaughan Williams (ed. with Philip Venables, University of York Music Press, 2010). His commissioning of new work has received support from Arts Council England (Yorkshire), the Lottery Fund, the PRS for Music Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Athanasios Zervas is a composer, theorist, saxophonist, and conductor. He holds a DM in composition and a MM in saxophone performance from Northwestern University and a BA in music from Chicago State University. He is a specialist on set theory, contemporary music, composition, orchestration, and improvisation. His research interests focus on the music of Elliott Carter, Ralph Shapey, and contemporary music for saxophone. His articles and research papers have been published by the University of Athens Greece, University of Macedonia Greece, the MUSE Institute of Greece, the Greek Composers Union, the Hellenic Saxophone

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Association, etc. Dr. Athanasios Zervas is an Assistant Professor (theory of music) at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece since 2003, and chief editor of the electronic music theory/composition journal “mus-e-journal” (www.muse.gr). In addition, Athanasios Zervas is the founder and sopranist of the Athens Saxophone Quartet (www.athenssaxophonequartet.com) and has numerous recordings as a soloist and with the ASQ.