Product Description
Aegean Fire
Always my
music has a cinematographic attitude as if it wants to follow a film not yet
created. With this work the listener
could wander and experience the life around a Greek island. In the beginning a
Greek dance unfolds that develops to a faint prayer; shortly after a waltz as a
distant memory surface. The first theme of the work reappears to end the work
in a triumphal and frenzy happy fiesta. The idea of the work came after a
suggestion by Panos Liaropoulos to compose a string quartet for the summer of
2015. Aegean Fire had its premiere in Greece by LAnima string quartet and shortly
after in Boston in February 2016.
Duration: 10 minutes
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
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.