Product Description
The Mother's Cry
Song for Mezzo Soprano and Harpsichord or Piano. Text in Greek, authentic traditional folk songs.
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-musical theme in his music.
The Groves Dictionary of Music
Costas Tsougras
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