New England Conservatory students electrify the Black Box Theater during Chirp, a multi-night music technology performance series showcasing live electronic music and cutting-edge music tech.

from Stratis Minakakis, curator of tonight's program
Beyond the "world of unsuspected sounds": A concert of Computer-Assisted Music
If there is one attribute that permeates the evolution of music in the past century, it is the radical expansion of its means of expression. As the frontiers of the medium expanded, older compositional practices were abandoned or repurposed, and new ones were invented. The electronic music revolution and the adoption, since the 1960s, of computers as compositional tools transformed the field to the extent that several compositional practices of the last 50 years are not truly accessible without the aid of technology. The efficiency of computers as interpreters of symbols, automators of tasks, and problem solvers make them ideal companions in exploring music that pushes the frontiers of sonic imagination and creates new modalities of experiencing music and music-making. 
        In the early 20th century, the French composer and electronic music pioneer Edgar Varèse expressed the desire to create new instruments that would contribute “a world of unsuspected sounds.” This concert features acoustic, electronic and multimedia works in which such “unsuspected sounds” acquire form, syntax, and meaning through the creative dialogue between composer and computer. 

NEC Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Winds + Kevin Holzman, William Drury

Tuesday, April 1, 2025 / 7:30pm

Bill Drury leads the NEC Symphonic Winds the premiere of Vykinon for two pianos and wind ensemble, featuring Stephen Drury and Yukiko Takagi.

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Annie Jacobs-Perkins and Katelyn Vahala perform a program at the Goethe Institute in Boston, featuring my Phoni Avras Leptis.

Program
Stratis Minakakis: Phoni Avras Leptis (2022)
Daniel Temkin: Rise (2024)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Sonata for solo violincello (1960)
Karlheinz Essl: Solo Piece (name TBD)
Jeffrey Mumford: Let Us Breathe (2020)
Helmut Lachenmann: Pression (1969, rev.2010)
Octavio Vazquez: Sonata for Cello and Piano "The Fool" (2023)

Ticket Information Soon

You are cordially invited to the artistic presentation and public defence by Don-Paul Kahl of the research project “Saxophone without Mouthpiece”. On 27 January at 20h00, Don-Paul Kahl will give his artistic presentation in a lecture recital format at the Royal Conservatoire (Studio 4).

Presentation Concert

27 January at 20h00, Studio 4, Spuiplein 150, The Hague, Koninklijk Conservatorium/Royal Conservatoire (Amare Building)

Programme:

• Go Within - Eleni Ralli

• Zeruan - María Eugenia Luc (with the international saxophone quartet, Ensemble du Bout du Monde)

• For Felipe M. - Stratis Minakakis

On 28 January at 10h00, Don-Paul Kahl will defend his dissertation in the Academy Building of Leiden University.

Concert info here: https://researchplatform.art/events/phd-defence-don-paul-kahl/

NEC Composers’ Concert
Jordan Hall & Livestream
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 7:30pm

Tonight's concert, curated by Stratis Minakakis, will include John Mallia's Dodo, Nima Janmohammadi's solo setar performance, Stratis Minakakis' Phoni Avras Leptis, Davide Ianni's Impromptu nel vuoto, Anthony Coleman's The Worms Are In Their Brains, and Sid Richardson's Rock Garden. 

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

Music of the Third Space

Point01Percent Series presents Music of the Third Space featuring my chamber music at Lilypad in Cambridge, MA on Tuesday, December 10th.

Program

Aggeloi III - Nina Dante, soprano
Lowell Etudes - Jihye Chang, piano
Cassandra Fragments - Dalia Chin, flute, Nina Dante, soprano
Phone Avras Leptis - TJ Borden, cello, Jihye Chang, piano

Concert Info Link: Point01Percent — The Lilypad

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/15Ev5Ndack/

Pianist Jihye Chang performs my Lowell Etudes for the album release party of her Boston Etudes, released by New Focus Recordings, in the Seully Hall at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Concert link: https://bostonconservatory.berklee.edu/events/guest-artist-jihye-chang-piano-recital

Chirp: NEC's Music Technology Showcase | Night 6 - Music Beyond the Threshold: A Concert of Computer-Assisted Music

New England Conservatory students electrify the Black Box Theater during Chirp, a six-night music technology performance series showcasing live electronic music and cutting-edge music tech.

Tonight's concert was curated by faculty member Stratis Minakakis. Join Minakakis and students for a pre-concert lecture from 7-8 p.m. 

Program includes my For Felipe M. for solo amplified saxophone, with video design and programming by Ben Eidson, I will also be conducting notes, echoes, too, from that veiled realm by Xiaofeng Jiang.

Boston friends: please join Duo Axis and me for a free concert in Allen Hall in the Boston Center for the Arts, featuring a performance of my “Skiagrafies II” for flute and piano resonance. Also on the program are works by Tania León, Marti Epstein, Mischa Salkind-Pearl and Morton Feldman’s iconic “Why Patterns?”

Facebook event (please share!): https://fb.me/e/1tRrWEdKg

About Duo Axis

Sought after for recitals and residencies across the US, Duo Axis has been featured in wide-ranging performance settings, sharing vivid music both new and old.

Artist in residence engagements at universities include: Brown University, UC Davis, UC San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Iowa Center for New Music, Mizzou New Music, Union College, and University at Buffalo.

Duo Axis performances have been presented by: Qubit (NYC), EQ Concerts (Boston, MA), Æpex Contemporary Performance (Ann Arbor, MI), Houston Flute Club (Houston, TX), Cape Symphony Chamber Series (Cape Cod, MA), Valencia International Performance Academy (Spain), and the Creative Arts Initiative (Buffalo, NY). During these engagements, we partner with community agencies like Community Music Center of Boston, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Buffalo String Works, or the Washington Music Teachers Association.

Duo Axis projects and commissions have been funded by the Amphion Foundation, Barlow Endowment, Arts Center of the Capitol Region, Copland Fund, Ditson Fund, Koussevitzky Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New Music USA, and St. Botolph Club Emerging Artist Award.

For Felipe M. in Berlin

Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M. for solo baritone saxophone at Unerhörte Musik. More info soon.

For Felipe M. in Nacogdoches, Texas

Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M. for solo baritone saxophone at Stephen F. Austin University, where he will be presented in a concert and masterclass. More info soon.

Afes for solo violin

Join me for the full premiere of AFES for solo violin, performed by violinist Gabriela Diaz on the Arthur Berger Memorial Concert, Jordan Hall, Boston, MA. More info here.

About the Work

The work Afes, Greek for touches, explores particularly fine and fragile timbral gradations that result from different nuances of touch. Throughout the work, aspects of the instrument’s tactility that are usually submerged in the normal mode of playing are given protagonistic roles: the sounds of the left hand against the fingerboard, nuances of different pressure, and the drawing of the bow hair and stick against different parts of the instrument’s body are ever-present. In this respect, Afes reverses the normal hierarchies of violin sound production, highlighting esoteric aspects of the physicality of playing and inventing a new mode of viscerality in engaging with the instrument.

Afes is dedicated to the Greek violinist and composer Tania Sikelianou, who commissioned the work.         

                                                 – Stratis Minakakis

…hypnon apo glefaron skedasei glykyn…

for solo bassoon

Join me for the premiere of …hypnon apo glefaron skedasei glykyn…, performed by Ben Roidl-Ward at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, IL on Sunday, January 28th, 2024, 3-5pm. The piece is dedicated to bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward and to Dr. Stavros Vlizos, the Director of the Amyklaion Research Project, an organization I care deeply about and hope you consider supporting.

More info about the work

The paternal side of my family comes from the village of Amyclae, Laconia. Although I grew up in Athens and spent the majority of my life in the United States, my connection to Amyclae has been a formative part of my identity. The long summers of my childhood were mostly spent playing at my grandfather's veranda, looking at the Taygetos mountain to the west, and the Temple of Amyclaeus Apollo to the east. These two images formed an indelible mark in my imagination and sparked a journey of discovery into the history, art, and literature that spanned the last four millennia between the two boundaries of my childhood horizons.

The title of my piece is a text fragment of the second Partheneion (“Maiden’s Songs”) by 7th century Spartan poet Alcman. These songs refer to performances by choruses of adolescent girls during the Hyacinthia festival, which was celebrated at the temple of Amycleus Apollo. In the beginning of the text, Alcman’s narrator expresses her longing to hear a beautiful melody that “will scatter sweet sleep from the eyes” (trans. Dr. Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi.) This fragment, transliterated in the title of the piece, provided the starting point of my own work. In “…hypnon apo glefaron skedasei glykyn…”, evanescent melodic lines combine with primordial sounds to compose a texture of sensations experienced in a state between sleep and wakefulness.

Thursday, July 13, 2023
The Valencia International Contemporary Ensemble performs the Spanish premiere of Skiagrafies at the Ateneo Musical del Puerto.

For more info on the festival VIPA: https://vipafestival.org/2023-composition-faculty-2/

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at Jordan Hall, Boston, MA.

Saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M for solo baritone saxophone on the NEC Composers’ Series Concert.

For more info: https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-composers-series-concert-don-paul-kahl-saxophones

February 13, 2023 at Voertman Hall, University of North Texas

Pianist Jihye Chang performs Lowell Etudes in her Guest Artist Recital.

For more info: https://calendar.unt.edu/event/guest_artist?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=University+of+North+Texas

November 17, 2022 at Unternehmen Mitte, Basel Switzerland.

Saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M for solo baritone saxophone.

For more info: https://mitte.ch/events/konzert-5/

In NEC Composers’ Series, pianist Jihye Chang performs Lowell Etudes: Three Etchings on Solitude to close out the program.

More info here.

Program Notes

“For a good voice hearing is a torture.” This line from “Beethoven”—which I happened upon randomly when leafing through a collection of poetry at a Philadelphia bookstore —was my first introduction to the work of Robert Lowell (1917-1997). From this epigrammatic summation of Beethoven’s late style to his intimate confessions of his struggles with bipolar disorder, Lowell’s best lines strike at the center of things with an electrifying sense of precision.

A quintessential Bostonian of aristocratic origin, Lowell often used New England as the setting for his works. Of all his depictions of the area, I felt a strong kinship with his portrayal of a certain Boston kind of solitude: “The loneliness inside me is a place / Harvard where no one might always be someone. / When we’re alone people we run from change / to the mysterious and beautiful / I am eating alone at a small white table, / visible, ignored” (excerpt from “Eating Out Alone”).

Lowell Études: Three Etchings on Solitude traces its origins to the aforementioned lines, interwoven with remote resonances of Debussy’s “...Des pas sur la neige...” (Prèludes, Book I, No. 6), a masterful exploration of acoustic space and memory.

–Stratis Minakakis

Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins performs Ek Vatheon, Ekekraksa Soi at the EstOvest Festival in Turin, Italy at 3:00pm.

EstOvest Festival page: https://estovestfestival.it/estovest-festival-xxi-contemporary-cello-week-il-4-ottobre-la-conferenza-stampa/

Contemporary cello week website: https://contemporarycelloweek.com/en/program

On their American Tour, French ensemble Court-Circuit performs Skiagrafies IV for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano at Harvard Musical Association, Boston, MA.

Facebook Event Here:

More info here: https://www.court-circuit.fr/evenement/americantour/

About HMA: https://hmaboston.org/

On their American Tour, French ensemble Court Circuit performs Skiagrafies IV for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano in Clark University’s Daniels Theater, Worcester, MA.

More info here: https://www.court-circuit.fr/evenement/americantour2022clark/

Clark University listing: https://www.clarku.edu/event/french-ensemble-court-circuit-residency/

Pianist Jihye Chang will record Lowell Etudes as a part of her Boston Etudes album.

More info here: https://jihyechang.com/calendar/

Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins and pianist Katelyn Vahala of Insert Music Here perform their program Silent Wood, Deep River, featuring the premiere of Phone Avras Leptis, at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

Program
Antonin Dvořák, Klid ("Silent Wood")
Louis Ballard, Katcina Dances
Stratis Minakakis, Phone Avras Leptis (2022 Commission for Insert Music Here) 
Gabriel Fauré, Cello Sonata No. 1 
Gabriela Lena Frank, Ríos Profundos ("Deep Rivers")
Antonin Dvořák, “Lasst mich allein” 
Daniel Temkin, Rise, for Cello and Piano (2022 Commission for Insert Music Here)

More info here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/silent-wood-deep-river-pasadena-conservatory-of-music-tickets-403179178777

Venue info here: https://pasadenaconservatory.org/event/silent-wood-deep-river/

April 15, 2022 at The Barn at Little Buffalo in Newport, PA

Saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M for solo baritone saxophone.

For more info: https://fb.me/e/6aL7RPKwM

April 2, 2022 at the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels, Belgium.

Saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl performs For Felipe M for solo baritone saxophone.

For more info: https://fb.me/e/6aL7RPKwM

Violinist Tania Sikelianou premieres ΑΦΕΣ for solo violin at the Conservatory of Athens on December 11th at 20:00! More info below and you may check out the wonderful performer at www.taniasikelianou.com.