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.

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

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/

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.

4 October 2021 - 7:30 pm - Stretansky Concert Hall - Susquehanna University - Selinsgrove, PA, USA

Saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl performs the live premiere of For Felipe M for solo baritone saxophone.

For more info: https://events.susqu.edu/event/5491-guest-artist-recital-don-paul-kahl-saxophone

The Dante + Chin Duo presents “Stories”, a concert experience merging storytelling and music. Works by Juan Campoverde, Nina Dante, Stratis Minakakis, Angélica Negrón, Bethany Younge, and a world premiere by Iván Sparrow. Stories told in English and Spanish by Madelyn Marcella and Rossy Perrotta.

NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE'S MADDEN BLACKBOX EXPERIMENTAL THEATER
171 EAST CHICAGO AVENUEN
APERVILLE, IL, 60540
UNITED STATES (MAP)

Source: https://www.ninadante.com/current-season/2020/2/13/north-central-college-presents-the-dante-chin-duo?fbclid=IwAR2wZKo6DfF8MOiiM4wTFakrkiEWkZDNLl_jAEMo8rnf1qdGLYj9TAqDKSI

Boston area friends: it gives me great pleasure to invite you to the US premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's seminal "Quaderno di Strada", with baritone Tyler Bouque, the Alinéa Ensemble and me at the podium. Also on the program works by Isang Yun and Betsy Jolas, performed by members of Steve Drury's [nec]shivaree.

Alinéa gives the US Premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino’s expansive “Quaderno di Strada” for baritone and chamber orchestra. Accompanied by projected photography of urban street scenes that compliment the variety of texts and collage effect of Sciarrino’s “Notebook”, the premiere highlights Alinéa as an ensemble of soloists in a forty-five minute journey from extreme sound to extremely fragile silence. Conducted by Stratis Minakakis at New England Conservatory’s Brown Hall.

Efstratios Minakakis - Conductor
Tyler Bouque - Baritone
Xiaoyu Lin - Flutes
Gillian Bobnak - Oboe/English Horn
Aleksis Martin - Clarinets
Jensen Bocco - Bassoon
Ryan Jung - Piano, Celeste
Alex Garde, Tennison Watts - Percussion
Emma Burge, Emma Carleton - Violin
Jason Butler - Viola
Robbie Bui - Cello
Matthew Henson - Bass

Find out more: https://www.alineaensemble.org/schedule/sciarrinos-quaderno-di-strada

Dalia Chen and Stratis perform Skiagrafies II for flute and piano resonance.

Please join us for an evening of music combining acoustic instruments and voices with amplified objects, electronic sounds, and video. The program features recent work by Andrea Pensado, Judy Dunaway, Tamar Diesendruck, Amber Vistein, Amanda Justice, and Stratis Minakakis. We are also excited to offer a rare performance of Ronald Roxbury’s "Four Driscoll Songs" (1974) interpreted by Lautaro Mantilla and Jon Starks. Additional performers include guest artists Rose Hegele (voice) and Dalia Chin (flute); and Dan McGee, Aleksis Martin, Grant Houston, Yi-Mei Templeman, and astronaut Tyler Bouque. The concert is free.

More info here: https://necmusic.edu/events/composer-series?ct=t

As part of the JPSQAfterDark series that explores the contemporary classical side of our performing lives, we explore 21st century works that tie us to Boston through our personal and aesthetic relationships. These contemporary works will be interspersed with our tonal heritage through movements of Sciarrino's Pagine (1998).

PROGRAM
Steve Snowden: Take This Hammer (2015)
Marti Epstein: Bluff (1997)
Jack Wilds: The Red Cape (2017)
Stratis Minakakis (NEC): Alismono ke Chairomai (2011)
Kate Salfelder (NEC): Stolen From Above (2015)
...and more TBA

Concert is FREE and open to the public (Donations accepted)

Formed in 2017, the Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet (JPSQ) regularly performs for private events and in community and outreach concerts with a variety of programs that include classical music, pop and rock tunes, jazz standards, South American music, and contemporary classical. Made up of NEC alumni, JPSQ is comprised of Sean Mix, Andy Wilds, Scott Chamberlin, and David Stevens.

RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/391562541545049/