Christopher Theofanidis, an American composer of Greek descent, with many accomplishments who holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been awarded the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowhship, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Charles Ives Fellowship, to name a few.
In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto. His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium, having been performed by over 150 orchestras internationally.
I interviewed Mr Theofanidis, and we talked about his Greek descent, his father who where born in the island of Samos, his happiness of returning to Greece and of course about the collaboration with TSSO.
You have an incredible career as a musician, as a composer and many more! And also you had collaborations with famous leading orchestras from around the world. Now you are returning to Greece and to Thessaloniki to perform with the State Symphony Orchestra. How are you feeling about that? Is it like returning to your roots or not;? How did you get involved with the T. S.S.O. Tell us more about this collaboration. How it came to life?
It is such a great pleasure for me to be back in Greece again after several years, and
especially to work with the Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Michailidis. In my life, I have only had one other opportunity to work with a musical group in Greece- fifteen years ago now- and so this experience is something very special and also personal for me. My father, who was from Samos, and grew up in Crete, passed away when I was a boy, and except for my sister and her family in Athens, I do not have any other living relatives here now. I grew up in America without much Greek upbringing unfortunately, but as I discovered my musical voice as a composer, I found a deeper connection to the culture of my father, and it continues in works like the ones you will hear on the concert tonight, and especially I think in the violin concerto. I am honored that your concertmaster, Antonis Sousamoglou, will play this piece. My father, Iraklis Theofanidis, and his brother, Menalaos Theofanidis, were both songwriters, and I know would have been so proud that I had some of my music, music from a different time but a similar soul, represented on the concert tonight.
What do you personally consider to be incisive moments in your work and/or career?
When you meet someone, you cannot know the future you will have with them and their relative importance in your life going forward. The conductor, Robert Spano, is a person who has made all of the difference to both the music I write and the major opportunities I have had. The Atlanta Symphony has recorded many of my pieces, and I have written six new works for them over the past 17 years. Each return to work with that group helps me to go deeper into my own music and voice because there is both a trust there and a long-term understanding, with many important things that are understood without even having to say them out loud now.
How has your music changed throughout your career?
I think two things have happened. One I have valued the power of structure and internal connection more as I have become older, and secondly I feel both my technique and sonic sensibility have sharpened considerably, and so the places I place my efforts in my music are now in overarching ideas rather than struggling with local problems.
Can you give us a little more insight into how you compose – ie. methods you use, how things come to you – perhaps something on the nuts and bolts you use to compose (eg. equipment used etc.).
Yes. I usually allow myself 2-3 weeks in the beginning of writing to dream and to sketch without the pressure of having to commit to anything. This allows me to understand if I truly love the materials I am coming up with, and also undertand how they can stretch and become other things. In that period, I also think a lot abstractly about what I am doing, trying to understand the greater ambition and intention of the music. When I begin writing notes linearly, I think of a long line pulling the listener and myself through the work, with peaks and valleys, like a story line, with characters and events that have interesting details and personality.
After I finally finish composing, I do another two passes over the work with fresh eyes and this editing is also composing for me.
I write at the piano with the piano and also by singing, but at a certain point input music into my computer on the Sibelius software program. When I am writing orchestral music, I have to print it out almost daily to get the big picture, as the computer screen is not good for large format music, or laying things out in time.
What is the piece of music you are most proud of?
That’s a hard one! I think two chamber pieces come to mind.
Ariel Ascending, which is a string quartet from 1995, which has all the things that are important to me for the first time in one piece. I look at it now and it brings me
back to another version of myself where I was still forming in a very rapid way, which is an enviable state in life. I also think of my piano quintet, At the Still Point, which in some ways is the pinnacle of my compositional craft and ability, from a small to makro level.
What’s next on your career?
I am writing a large oratorio for Carnegie Hall for the 200th anniversary of Greek Independence. The story is the book, Eleni, by Nicholas Gage (Gatzoyannis), and concentrates on the period of WW II and the Greek civil war. Much of it takes place in Lia. This is the period my father grew up in, and so in a way, it is my chance to try to understand his life a little more clearly as well.
Info
Friday, 2 March 2018
at 21:00
Thessaloniki Concert Hall
Conductor: Myron Michailidis
Violin: Antonis Sousamoglou
Christopher Theofanidis (1967): Rainbow body (2000) for orchestra
Christopher Theofanidis (1967): Concerto (2008) for violin and orchestra
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Jazz Suite n. 2
# In cooperation with the Thessaloniki Concert Hall
Σχόλια
Δημοσίευση σχολίου