Photos.  Recent Tours, Concerts/Audio-Video Files/Program notes
Life of Death, Slave Story, Invocation, Lamentation?, Phygein Adynaton, The Garden of Eden, Anavasis, Chase Dance, If I Could I Would/Concerto for Strings
Constitution Article 91(double concerto), Lament for the Balkans(third guitar concerto), Night Wanderings, ...tell my wife I love her..., Escape, The Depressing Aspect
 Ephatha, Nadir, Love Works,  Daedalus and Ikaros

4':33"by John Cage   VIDEO (from 1999/Germany-Iserlohn)             
VIDEO: Berklee Performance Center  A. Kalogeras guitar concerto          
VIDEO:  Life of Death  - II Mov. ALEA III - Theodore Antoniou. conductor                                                                                                                                                       

---

Scenes From the Life of Death
Death is a guitarist,  a composer, and a disgruntled  employee. "They" don't pay him enough at his present job.  He complains all the time and wants to retire.  He is sick and tired of dealing with people, who greet him with expressions such as: "Please, No!," "Don't take me today," "One more day please," "Take the other guy, next door," and so on!  Death's only consolation is to go home to his  "soul mates," his friends, and perform his favorite pieces. 
He has only 10-15 minutes to perform before going back to "work".
The titles of the movements are:
I. "Awakening of Mournful Feelings on Arrival at Work", 
II. "A Visit at the Playground", and
III."Sad and Ungrateful Feelings After the Visit - What A Life!" 
Put down your beloved instrument Mr. Reaper!  It's time to pay a visit to a fellow musician down the street...

A Profile of Death

Vital statistics:  Male, single, ageless, wearing same stodgy outfit  since the beginning of time.
Nickname: Grim Reaper.
Occupation: Collector of Music Souls, human ribs, and attitudes.
Dreams:  To quit his present position and become a full time professional  musician.
Hobbies:  Composing, playing the guitar, walking in cemeteries during storms, Russian roulette, crashing music festivals.
Sad moments:  Antibiotics.

A.P as performed at Carnegie Hall/2002

The Life of Death (Narration) by Lukas Foss

Look at you! You miserable creature! Coming back home, after a hard day's work. How many souls did you have to get and deliver today?
You know, no one likes you! Your presence automatically signals the absence of loved ones.
Yet you have the gall to complain. You say your pay is insufficient, so low, and your work conditions unendurable horrible...You complain all
the time. You want to retire, but nevertheless you have to do your job. You claim that you don't have a choice. 
You say you are a sensitive man. You say your own fears almost overwhelm you. Once, proudly, you, too, were mortal. 
Well, here you are at last! At your home with your "soul mates", your friends and fellow musicians. These are "souls" you yourself collected.
The best of the best! 
You are not at work any more; you're not engaged in a leisure pursuit. Join your orchestra. Forget for a while what you do for a living. Play a
little tune. 
(FINALE)
Put down your beloved instrument Grim Reaper! It's time to pay a visit to a fellow musician a poor suffering fool, practicing just down the
street, as if he had all the time in the world.

                                              …text by Apostolos Paraskevas, edited by Paul Kafka-Gibbons



With The Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine, playing The Life of Death             performing    Slave Story

Slave Story (1992) is one of the first pieces where the composer’s experimentation with novel guitar sounds becomes evident. In the words of Mr. Paraskevas, “with this piece I wished to give the listener as many unconventional and new sounds on the guitar as possible.” In order to understand the function of the sounds used one has to be aware of the programmatic elements hidden behind the music.

The story is that of a slave; first we hear the chains, represented by scratching of the nails on the strings, while immediately afterwards the leitmotif of the slave is introduced. As the music grows faster, the slave is caught in a dream, where he is being pursued (musically illustrated by the strikes on the wood and other techniques that produce percussive sounds). This hectic effect culminates in the emancipation of the slave’s mind, whereby he recalls sounds of the timpani that he used to hear when once free in his homeland. In order to achieve these different timpani-like sounds, the player has to cross the strings of the guitar in pairs, thus forming six different sounds of timpani, and improvise rhythmically on them.

As the sound gradually fades out, the opening scratching of the string returns, bringing the slave out of his illusions and back to reality. The sound of the lowest note is not enough to lament on the slave’s fate, so the performer has to start untuning the lowest string, until a very low and uncertain pitch is heard. At this point he lays the guitar flat, and, with the use of a Ping-Pong ball that he slides between the fourth and the fifth strings of the guitar he creates a sound that represents a dream, an escape from the reality. At the same time, however, the lamenting bass persists - that proves to be the only reality.



                                                                        Corfu 1997, Theodore Antoniou, Hellenic Contemporary Orchestra
...Phygein Adynaton..., 1996,  for prepared guitar and orchestra, (excerpt)  from Finale.  The guitar concerto Phygein Adynaton (Impossible to Escape) calls for a guitarist with two classical guitars (one of which is prepared with paper-clips) and orchestra.  The work is in one movement throughout but essentially has two parts divided in half by the guitar Cadenza.  The first part is evocative and stochastic. 

This “invocation” is around a tonal center where guitar and orchestra coexist in equal terms.  In the second part the orchestra takes a different, more dynamic part.  The prepared guitar sounds almost distorted, like a new instrument melodic and percussive at the same time. This part of the concerto is darker in the mood and of a philosophical point of view is trying to give a direction in the battle between life and death.






The Garden of Eden                                                                                                                                                                       Athens Concert Hall, rehearsal of "Phygein Adynaton"
-Life
-Adam and Eve
-Serpent
-The Voice of the Lord God
-East of Eden's Garden

These 5 pieces, which are compiled together as a suite for guitar, represent a trouble-free compositional style of mine, based on melodic and most of the time tonal material.  Although,  I write these program notes almost 11 years after the original date of the work,  I do look back and rediscover an innocent part of myself away from my current trends and obsession with the notion of Death which my latest works deal with.

A description of the Garden of Eden is what is about in this suite.  Some times programmatic Serpent and The Voice of the Lord God , some times romantic East of Eden's Garden, other times joyful  Adam and Eve and some times musically absolute Life.  Every single movement represents a small part of the life in the Garden of Eden as we read it, heard it or imagined it.

From a technical point of view the work is friendly for the performer and guitar oriented concerning the compositional technique.  Fingerings and positions are very important for the overall interpretation of the work which are provided.

Although these 5 pieces form the Garden of Eden they could be performed as single units as well.

Lets hope we'll meet there.

“Anavasis”

 The piece is quite demanding from a technical point of view and it is written in a way which unfolds most of the possibilities of  the piano sonorities.  Dense texture, polyphonic, and with a flavor of  minimalism just before the end.  Fast passages increase the tension of the music and the agitation of the performer accompanied by a very propulsive rhythm preserved for the finale.  The harmonic material used in “Anavasis” which means in Greek “Ascension” has been derived from a modal scale find in Eastern music.

                                                                                                    The Chase Dance,
It is a fast piece in dance rhythm with an introduction that presents the whole tone scene. The introduction has no meter. Most of my tonal material comes from my Greek traditional heritage as a listener and musician. Alternation of 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 meters increases the tension of the piece and the nerves of the performer as the end approaches.  The piece ends almost abruptly as the result of a chase.

“Chase Dance” has been recorded by David Starobin on a Bridge Records label - Newdance (Bridge 9084/Grammy nomination) and by Apostolos Paraskevas on a Centaur Records label - Visions of Azure (CRC 2378)

Constitution Article 91 (Concerto for flute and guitar in one movement).

The piece is quite demanding from a technical point of view and unfolds many sonorities for  both solo instruments as well as orchestra, including dense texture, polyphony, and  a flavor of  minimalism just before the end.   After an agitated orchestra introduction, the flute enters with a lamenting and painful melody.  The guitar then takes over and introduces some of the core motivic elements of the work.  Next, the flute and guitar join in a chase -like duo with virtuosic passages in both instruments, playing off the orchestra in a  frenzied commotion.  The slow and almost distorted cadenza (with the snare drum) comes as a surprise and, at the same time, as a moment of relief.  The tension increases as propulsive rhythms drive through the finale and build with rapid agitation to the end.

The title of the work, Constitution Article 91, refers to a part of the former Greek constitution used by the dictatorship between 1976 and 1974 to abolish democracy in Greece.  Certain rhythms in the work come from a fearsome and agitated speech that the dictator delivered to the academicians in 1973 following the students movement against the tyranny.

Lament for the Balkans for guitar, strings and mezzo soprano
 Lament for the Balkans is a work which deals with the notion of Death, an aspect that has intrigued and inspired me for the last ten years with respect to my composition and performance.

The tragic situation of all wars in this world compels me as a creator and performer to express feelings through my music. For this important reason and with the hope that my music would be able to transfer a message against war and to evoke feelings towards peace, I composed Lament. As a composer,


I think that I have the obligation and, at the same time, the right to fight using my weapons against any war that causes violence, abandonment, and misery.




 Night Wanderings for Orchestra

    "A night in Athens...
     A lonely wandering in the nocturnal life of one of the most ancient cities on earth...
     A lonely wandering inside the darkness that covers everything we want to avoid..."


Thus Mr. Paraskevas describes the influence on the composition of Night Wanderings. Using his personal idiom as composer he wished to transfer the distinctive Greek musical colors into what he considers his "most Greek-influenced work thus far."


The score of Night Wanderings  calls for the typical instrumental forces of a classical orchestra, with the addition of piano and a great variety of percussion, ranging from timpani (four), bongos, and tam-tam to xylophone and sleigh bells.
The work is written in one movement, but one can clearly distinguish the following three parts:

Part One starts with solo timpani, like a distant echo, in 5/8 time - a rhythm which immediately becomes a persistent ostinato. The opening slow section (A) leads to a fast dance, played primarily by the woodwinds (B), only to subside again into a slow espressivo (C), with rapid repetitive patterns on the flute. The fast dance (B) returns, only this time gradually leading to the climax (D) which concludes the first part.

After a short slow introduction to the second part, a solo clarinet line, reminiscent of similar passages in folk songs of northern Greece, soars above the rest of the orchestra.
The solo clarinet leads us to the third part, an energetic tutti, where material from the previous parts are recapitulated. The final sonority of the work, E-minor, is played staccato  and sforzando  by the whole orchestra.

The 5/8 meter and the characteristic interval of the augmented second (with its "exotic" connotations) permeate the whole piece, and they suggest the influence of familiar rhythmic and modal patterns often encountered in Greek traditional music. As the music evolves one is encouraged to "wander" with the night colors and surprises of the music.

Night Wanderings  was written during April and May of 1996 in Boston. Its chamber version premiere was given in Athens in September 1996, with the Hellenic Contemporary Orchestra and Theodore Antoniou as conductor.  A year later, Lukas Foss presented the work in Boston with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra in its orchestral version and at Carnegie Hall with the National Festival Orchestra on January 14, 2001.

Eftychia Papanikolaou

Apostolos and Lukas Foss
Medford, MA 1992                                     In Greece in 2001                      St, Petersburg, 2005/Russia/composition seminar                    


St, Petersburg, 2005/Russia/Jury/
Russian creative Union.                                                Award Ceremony, St. Petersburg                                       ..and concert                                                                                           


V. Koslov, Miro and Oddveig Simic,
A. Paraskevas, G. Guillen

Invocation

the guitar introduces the evocative mood of the work, followed four measures later by the oboe, which with its characteristic sound, embraces the guitar into a conversation and at the same time into an invocation.  the second theme, atmospheric, like an echo, reveals a waiting status.  the work, full of fast arpeggios and technical difficulties for both instruments. gradually increases in dramatic tension and complexity, and concludes with the initial idea.  the finale, simple, subtractive, allows a feeling of an unfulfilled expectation.

Lamentation?

When I composed "Lamentation?" back in 1995, my main goal was to portray elements of a tragedy (usually dealing with Death) with all these idiosyncrasies which someone could find in certain cultures.  Always there is a point, in the sadness of the His presence (Death), when people (especially in some cultures) need to laugh at Him by means of dancing or saying jokes or even laugh out loud;  Here is where my “dance” comes to portray this aspect.

"Lamentation?" starts with a narrative and mournful way.  Melancholic would be a more sufficient characterization .  The dance which follows, is this specific element which keeps the balance in certain devastating situations.  The balance between sadness and joy. 

Characteristic lament sounds are the quarter tones and the existence of a glissando chord which the performer realizes by playing and singing at the same time.

For this work I did use thoughts and feelings derived form my home land Greece which I tried to transfer with a direct and at the same time a dynamic way for the performer.
(First Prize- advanced category- at the SKOA/Greece composition competition, 1996)
       

                                                                                                                                                          Drawing by Christos Mitsakis
Open Up/Ephatha
                                                                                                                                                                               

This work of mine is a scream of faith. It is the Impossible, possible.  It is the needed effort for the realization of something.  It is the thought behind every success and every failure.  It is the extra step we took and succeeded or the one we didn’t take and failed.  In all my works since 1992 the aspect of Death is the primarily energy and initiative energy in my musical thought. 

In Epphatha I try to offer to faith the first step and to myself a chance for a salvation in this level of creation.  The title of the work comes to me from the St. Mark’s Gospel 7, 32-35 from where I took most of the realization of the work.

Of course as a western educated composer I used material I found in front of me in those years of exploration in the music world and I didn’t conceive the work “under a tree”, an image that most of us maybe had for creators over the years.

There are so many and so little a composer/creator can say for his/her work.  I will not challenge you with the many.

with Theodore Antoniou in Corfu.Greece
Rhythm always gives me the drive for continuation in this work.  I utilize important elements from my Greek heritage and personal elements as well when it comes to form.  That’s why my music takes its shape and develops itself via a trip.  It starts with optimism, moves to an impulse and dizziness of the moment and soul’s nostalgia, the simplicity of the youth, the pain and salvation of Death and again returns at this optimistic feeling that was lost for a while.

The procedure of composing is very simple when I walk through it step by step.  Everything is so clear, ceremonial, related like a pray.  Whatever I offered I should receive back.  Nothing more. 

This work is for my mother’s memory that returned to meet my father in a better place.


There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.   After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.  He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ).   At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

St. Mark 7, 32-35





The Daedalus and Ikaros Journey

Escape from here is what I’ll do                                                                                                                                                       in Cuba 1984/with Leo Brouwer
I have a plan I thought it through
The waves beneath us deadly wild                                                                     In Cuba 1988
I’ll fly up high, it’s just the sky

That was a dreadful thing to say
To fly so high, you can’t survive.
Your wings, your soul and frozen smile,
The sun will burn and you will die.

The Death you seek I am sure you’ll get,
He’s there for you he won’t forget.
He will be fast and kind with you,
If He survived why not you too?

It’s time to go the sky gets blue
My mind will be so close to you
You can not scare me I have to try,
The time is right, let’s say goodbye.

text by Apostolos Paraskevas

The music was originally set on the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.  My teacher then, Lukas Foss asked me to compose one song in order to be a part of one of his lectures at Boston University ‘Words on Music”.  When years later I decided to publish the work I realized that the estate of the late R. Frost hated the idea that someone (like me) could wreck the poem and sent me a refusal letter.  At that point I decided to write my own poem (maybe my first one…) and use the familiar to me subject of the Daedalus and Ikaros Journey to freedom. 

After his arrival in Crete, Daedalus found that Minos would not let him leave. He subsequently obtained wax and feathers and fashioned wings for himself and his son Ikaros. With these they succeeded in flying away, but Ikaros, flying too near to the sun, melted his wings, fell into the sea near Crete, and drowned; Daedalus escaped to Italy. The local King Kokalos drowned him in hot water.


Nadir (1994) is written for “prepared” guitar, a term usually associated with a piano in which certain objects have been placed on the strings in order to alter the conventional sound of the instrument. Many composers have written music for “prepared” piano, among them John Cage, who, according to Mr. Paraskevas, was the inspiration for his transferring of the same technique to the guitar.

It is quite possible that nobody has used this kind of technique on the guitar before. After experimenting with various materials, he decided on the use of two metal paper clips, which he puts at specific locations on the fingerboard, so that they best produce the desired sound effect, a sound both harmonic and percussive. Nadir  suggests the lowest point, here associated with the notion of death.

The piece bears many programmatic references to the struggle between good and evil, life and death, musically portrayed in the persistent ostinato rhythms and the fragmented melodic phrases. Death cuts through in the form of an abrupt strike on the wood, the fingers continue to play but no sound is heard, until two more strikes make their movement stop. Little by little life and sound start again, but the final strike brings about the pessimistic message that fate and death predominate in the end. The piece ends with the inscription “...but sooner or later we live forever” - a final optimistic touch.

Nadir  was the outcome of continuous experimentation on the capabilities of the guitar as an instrument, and all the potential sound effects that one can draw from it.




Preparation of Nadir, in St.Petersburg/Russia - Lecture


Performing Alex Kalogeras' Guitar Concerto                                                                                    Conducting with Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss conductor

Chamber Concerto for Strings - If I Could I Would

Concerto for Strings was premiered by Theodore Antoniou  and the SOLISTI di PATRAS.  One of my few aleatoric/improvisatory pieces for orchestra based on specific music material and deals with time as an important element of creation. The conductor has a significant role as when the instruments start and stop so no second performance is the same .

Sonetos de Amor/Love works

These Sonetos were written in Boston in 1994.                                                          
                                                                                                                                              at Athens Concert Hall - 1995                                                                         
The melodic aspect is the most important element in the work, where the soprano is constantly
 in a “love affair” with the solo violin.  The violin in this work has a very melodic part which serves as a second voice (contralto).

Two poems by Pablo Neruda where used, in a way to serve better the voyage of his melodic writing.  Counterpoint is quite evident in the whole work. 


The clarinet always dramatic, serves as a bridge  between the voice and the violin and of the rest instruments.

Sonetos de Amor are written for soprano, clarinet, percussion, harp, violin, viola, cello and double-bass and won the first prize in the Papaioanou Composition Competition in 1997 in Athens, Greece.

The premiere performance took place in the 1997 Corfu Music Festival with Klaudia Delmer, mezzo soprano, Theodore Antoniou, conductor and the Hellenic Music Ensemble.
                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                           

with Alexandros Kalogeras in Boston 1993       


The Depressing Aspect

When Peter Cokkinias asked me to write a piece for the Berklee Clarinet Choir and specifically for nine clarinets, I was surprised to hear that this croup existed at the first place.  Although I have written music for winds before, I never had the opportunity to write for the whole family (almost) of clarinets.  The piece reflects the idiosyncrasies of Life and Death which coexist in the same environment.  For the last 10 years now I compose music which deals with the notion of Death. Therefore this piece makes no exception to this rule.

The Depressing Aspect  apparently is Death itself or I could rather say Death himself!  Always there is a point when in the sadness of His presence people (especially in some cultures) need to laugh at Death by means of dancing or saying jokes or even laugh out loud.  There is, where my “dance” comes to portray this aspect.  The piece from a technical point of view is quite demanding for all nine of the clarinets. Based on two ostinato ideas (presented in the beginning of the work) on where the piece takes its material from.  A second part comes attaca to explore the idea of compound rhythms, and finally the return to the depressing feeling of the introduction which brings to the listener the unwanted reality of Death’s presence.


Escape
Some of the material used in this work comes from my First guitar concerto which was composed and premiered in the Athens concert hall in Athens /Greece in 1995.  The idea to be able to reduce a whole orchestra’s material to a single instrument always intrigued me and inspired me.  The title Escape is suggesting escape from Death.   It reflects the idiosyncrasies of Life and Death which coexist in the same environment.  Death needs Life to exist but not vice versa!  For the last 10 years now I compose music which deals with the notion of Death. Therefore this piece makes no exception to this rule.

"Escape" was premiered by Michael Nicolella in Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, USA in 2001.



...tell my wife I love her...

The last words of a dying soldier.  His last 5 minutes.  A lament full of love, beautiful memories and the eminent shadow of Death.  A simple melody unfolds onto a variation of agony and ecstasy.  The end  comes closer and closer as the heart beat accents and descents.  Still the last beat says   ...I love you...

Lamentations are a eulogy to love not to death.  We lament because we love life.  Death needs life to exist but not vice versa.  ...Tell my Wife I love her..., was a part of 13 Laments which were written by Berklee College composers after a request of mine. 

I thank all my esteemed colleagues for their time and talent they devoted to compose for me these beautiful works for the memory of love.  I thank you for your trust and most of all I thank you for your dedication to music it self.

 

                                                                                                  VIDEO: with Peter Cokkinias, conductor performing at Berklee Performance Center               
Apostolos and Lukas Foss in Bridgehampton in July 2003
a day before the performance of "Lament for the Balkans"
Berklee Performance Center/2006




"Performing" 4':33" by John Cage in Liechtenstein/2000    

                                                                                                                                                
  CARNEGIE HALL, NY 2002 WITH LUKAS FOSS