Transmissions University Exchange program

Norwegian and Greek music students link hands and share sounds over the internet

With the support of Onassis Stegi and Ultima Festival, 6 students from the Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and 6 students from Department of Musicology, University of Oslo connected over the internet and composed in pairs six new pieces which were presented at Ultima Festival in September 2021.

In a musical context, the word transmission refers to the exchange of music both within and between different groups of people. The concept of transmissions is also concerned with the alteration of music through its dissemination. This process mainly occurs in performance and has played a key role in the development of musical traditions all over the world throughout history.

From Byzantine times and the transmission of oral traditions which provided a bridge between East and West, to the development of musical notation in the middle ages, musical exchange between cultures has been a catalyst in cultural exchange. In a pre-globalized world where music could differ radically from one local community to another, musical ideas could be completely transformed through journeys between different groups of people.

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In this project, the students from the Universities of Oslo and Athens explore the theme of transmission in musical communication. In a series of workshops in 2021, the students have taken as a creative point of departure the small deviations, limitations, possibilities, and processes of change that occur in communicating ideas from one person to another in a modern technological context. Attempts to identify and explore what happens when musicians with different cultures and musical backgrounds meet and exchange ideas have resulted in six new works by the students.

The communication of musical ideas and the technological challenges and possibilities in interacting online in a telematic performance are key to the works that were performed at two locations (at Sentralen and at the Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, simultaneously and in line with travel restrictions).

Discover the full blog article about the university exchange

Concert at Sentralen, Oslo | 23.09.2021

The students worked in pairs, one student from Athens and one from Oslo. Four of the pairs started composing and performing together online in spring 2021 before coming together for intensive workshops and rehearsals during the Ultima 2021 Festival. Two of the pairs have worked exclusively online and also perform in the concert via network link between Oslo and Athens.

All of the pieces have taken inspiration from the challenges and possibilities in transmitting ideas and communicating from a distance and in close proximity online. And all of the pieces have engaged in various ways with forms of cultural exchange, taking inspiration from the language, nature, and traditions of Greece and Norway. Τhe final piece of the concert is an interactive collective work for all participants involved, in which the performers produce sound upon taking cues from a graphic score displayed on a large screen.

Click here for the program notes of the concert

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Participants

Athens | Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Fotis Rovolis

Maria Katsipi

Penelope Bekiari

Penny Anastasopoulou

Anna-Maria Christodoulou

Gabriel Farilekas

Oslo | Department of Musicology, University of Oslo

Mari Lesteberg

Sebastian Fongen Langslet

Christian Lerbo

Anders Salomon Lidal

Søren Hunskaar

Elias Gram-Nilsen

Project Leaders

Orestis Karamanlis

Stefano Fasciani

Peter Edwards

Technical Assistants/ Facilitators

Henrik Haraldsen Sveen

Kyriakos Papadopoulos

Kostas Katsantonis

Giorgos Dousis

Coordinators

Anastasia Georgaki

Christos Carras

Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen

The project “Transmissions” is coordinated by Onassis Stegi (Greece) in partnership with Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival (Norway) with the support of the EEA Grants and the Norwegian Financial Mechanisms 2014–2021.