Music Connects the Onassis Stegi and The Panteion University, Vol. 6

Niki Krasaki: “Buzzer” (2021)

Trigger Happy [Manthos Karras, Yorgos Mizithras, Yorgos Stavridis, Yorgos Stenos (musical objects and toys)]

Vasiliki Legaki: “Sound Attractors” (2021)

Noa Mick (saxophone, percussion), Theo Vazakas (percussion), False Relationships and the Extended Endings Ensemble for New Music

Anthi Damvouneli: “HαdεS” (2021)

Eva Stavrou (flute), Thalia Papadopoulou (piano)

Nikos Galenianos: “The forest that hears the field that sees” (2021)

TETTTIΞ: Guido de Flaviis (saxophone), Stamatis Passopoulos (accordion), Charis Pazaroulas (double bass)

Alexandros Spyrou: “Τrio” (2021)

Members of ergon ensemble: Kostas Panagiotidis (violin), Kostas Tzekos (clarinet), Dimitris Travlos (cello)

Niki Krasaki: “Buzzer”

“Buzzer” (2021) was commissioned by Onassis Stegi from the young composer Niki Krasaki. A rich palette of sounds drawn from toys, and from children’s musical instruments and objects, acted as the source of her inspiration, unleashing her imagination for the creation of a unique form of music notation that allows for improvisation. The familiar sound of the gameshow buzzer served as the composer’s main stimulus, used as the core around which she built a work of varied timbres. The piece is performed by Trigger Happy, an edgy four-piece improvisational contemporary music collective who play (with) phrases from well-known children’s melodies and fables, and with the rules of team games.

Vasiliki Legaki: “Sound Attractors”

“Sound Attractors” (2021), a composition by Vasiliki Legaki commissioned by Onassis Stegi, presents a dynamic system of two tangential aural worlds – that of the saxophone and that of percussion – comprising timbral “points” and “lines”. By placing the performers in two different parts of the space, their sound gestures create parallel trajectories between them. The work’s timbres correspond, connect, continue one another, clash, and coalesce. The piece seeks to propose an experience that perceives sound movement as aperiodic and accidental, unstable and non-linear, inspired by the concept of chaos as a state of turmoil. It is performed by the saxophone player Noa Mick – a member of False Relationships and the Extended Endings, an ensemble for new music – and the percussionist Theo Vazakas.

Anthi Damvouneli: “HαdεS”

In her new work, titled “ΗαdεS” (2021), Anthi Damvouneli takes an old map of the area around the River Acheron in Epirus as her starting point, a map on which the flutist Eva Stavrou and the pianist Thalia Papadopoulou trace their own paths towards the Nekyomanteion (or Necromanteion – the “Oracle of the Dead”) of Acheron. By means of 30 miniature pieces, the musicians formulate their own personal routes into the underworld. The map’s coordinates – taken as words – are used either for what they signify or for their very sound, while the movements of the musicians make their own contribution to this non-conventional composition. The number 30 represents the time spent by worshippers in the Nekyomanteion – 30 whole days and nights – where they prepared themselves, body and soul, to meet their loved ones who had passed over.

Nikos Galenianos: “The forest that hears the field that sees”

The new work by composer Nikos Galenianos – “The Forest That Hears the Field That Sees” (2021) – is influenced by a little-known drawing by Dutch/Netherlandish artist Hieronymous Bosch titled “The Wood Has Ears, The Field Has Eyes”. The composer was inspired by the drawing’s structure, and by the stories it incorporates, which themselves reference other drawings. He was also interested in exploring a broadened range of techniques for playing the accordion, the saxophone, and the double bass, particularly as regards their points of timbral convergence. The work is performed by three musicians from the TETTTIΞ ensemble – Guido de Flaviis on the saxophone, Stamatis Passopoulos on the accordion, and Charis Pazaroulas on the double bass.

Alexandros Spyrou: “Τrio”

The new work by Alexandros Spyrou – “Trio” (2021) – was conceived as a work of open performative form. That is, it calls upon audiences to select the instruments that will perform it, thus ensuring that a new sound experience can result each time. The work’s world premiere is being performed by three musicians from the Ergon Ensemble – Kostas Panagiotidis (violin), Kostas Tzekos (clarinet), and Dimitris Travlos (cello). In this piece of mixed music notation, the composer asks his performers to use non-conventional modes of sound production – demanding the incorporation of movements made by the musicians’ bodies, the sound of their breath, and the tapping of their instruments’ resonating chambers – with the overarching aim of broadening sound production beyond the strict confines of a standard music score.

Students reading “Culture and Cultural Management” at Panteion University’s Department of Communication, Media and Culture have been working closely with Onassis Stegi every organizational step of the way in order to experience, first hand, what lies at the heart of this production: reciprocity, accountability, inspiration, professionalism, interaction, and freedom of expression. Channels of communication are kept constantly open between them and the Production, Communication, and Curation Departments at Onassis Stegi, as well as with the artists themselves, to allow for constant feedback, and to jointly oversee and coordinate the organization and promotion of this year’s commissions.