Product Description
Tantalus was the
son of Zeus and was the king of Sipylos. He was exceptionally favored among
mortals since he was invited to share the food of the gods. However, he abused
the guest-host relationship and was punished by being "tantalized"
with hunger and thirst in Tartarus: he was immersed up to his neck in water,
but when he bent to drink, it all drained away; luscious fruit hung on trees
above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his
reach. There are differing stories about what Tantalus' crime was. A famous
account says that he invited the gods to a feast and served them the
dismembered body of his own son, Pelopas; when the gods discovered the
deception, they punished Tantalus and restored Pelopas to life, replacing with
ivory a part of the shoulder which had been eaten by Demeter.
This is a work based on the myth of the above
mentioned infamous dinner which Tantalus served to the Gods his own son Pelopas
as part of the meal...his crime, the passion, the distorted love and all those
things that made Greeks...you know...Greeks! Full of imagination,
surprises, gruesome attitude, insanity and most of all fun.
Elements of my own personal musical language are
present which incorporate agitated rhythms, virtuosic writing for the guitars,
passion for life and...death of course, memorable melodies, a small
reminiscence of a style that a guitar audience will love...(Spanish guitar,
counterpoint, and even an optional tambourine part). I proudly composed it for the Tantalus Guitar
Quartet and I truly believe that always a feast after every performance will
follow
Apostolos Paraskevas
Boston 2007
Apostolos Paraskevas is a classical
guitarist and composer as well as an award-winning film director and producer.
He has received multiple international awards for his compositions and was
nominated for a Grammy Award. He is the only guitarist ever to have a major
orchestral piece performed at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Lukas
Fossand the only musician who has performed there in a Grim Reaper outfit. He
was the founder and served for 16 years as the artistic director of the
International Guitar Congress-Festival of Corfu, Greece. He is a voting member
of the Recording Academy (Grammys). After
his undergraduate music studies in Volos he pursued advanced studies in
classical guitar with Costas Cotsiolis (diploma, 1990) and Leo Brouwer (Havana
1984, 1988), as well as postgraduate studies in composition with Lukas Foss and
Theodore Antoniou (DMA in composition, Boston University, 1998). Paraskevas
embarked on a successful career as a guitar soloist and contemporary composer,
achieving distinctions in both disciplines: Grammy nomination for
Chase
Dance (Bridge Records, 1999); first prize for
Night Wanderings (Lukas
Foss Composition Competition, 2000); first prize for
Phygein Adynaton (National
Composers Conference, 1997); and numerous prestigious commissions,
performances, and publications. Following teaching posts at Northeastern and
Boston Universities, Paraskevas has taught since 2001 at the Berklee College of
Music in Boston (professor of composition and classical guitar).
His
eclectic compositional style arises as an idiosyncratic integration of
seemingly conflicting influences _from avant-garde approaches to harmonic
structure, form, and timbre, to pop-folk modal and rhythmical concepts
_amalgamated into a personal evocative musical language, characterized by
rhythmic verve, melodic grace, dramatic (and sometimes unexpectedly humorous)
gestures, and ritualistic or theatrical elements. The latter feature has also
led Paraskevas to the creation of films, notably the acclaimed I Finally Did
It (Gold award, California Film Awards 2010), dealing wittily with Death, a
recurring extra-mus
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