John%20Psathas

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John Psathas

• NZ Composer

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John Psathas

• John Psathas is best known as the composer of
  the key opening music for the 2004 Athens Olympic
  Games. It took John seven months and four trips
  to Greece to complete the project, which involved
  creating music for up to 250 musicians to record
  for the Olympics opening ceremony. This included
  compositions and arrangements for the Olympic
  Flag, the arrival and setting of the flame, and
  music for the fireworks .

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• Ioannis (John) Psathas was born in Wellington New
  Zealand July 3rd 1966. His father (Emmanuel
  Psathas, from Nea Michaniona) and mother
  (Anastasia Psathas, from Thessaloniki) emigrated
  to New Zealand in 1960 (both sides of Johns
  ancestors descend from Anatoliki Thrace).

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Where did he live?

• The Psathas family entered the restaurant
  business and John grew up in a small New Zealand
  town, Taumaranui. He then went to college in the
  city of Napier where he developed a strong
  interest in music.

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Psathas Musical style

• "Many of his compositions have an energy and
  drive more extreme than any other music I know -
  it sweeps one up on a frantic roller-coaster ride
  and carries one to that height of exhilaration."

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Then where to?

• He left college early to study piano and
  composition at Victoria University of Wellington.
  In 1988 Johns parents and sister (Tania)
  returned to Greece permanently. His parents live
  in Nea Michaniona. After completing his Masters
  degree, John studied and worked for 2 years in
  the USA and in Belgium. Before returning to New
  Zealand in 1994 where he has lectured at Victoria
  Universitys School of Music (now the New Zealand
  School of Music) ever since. He recently achieved
  the status of Associate Professor.

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His Music

• His music is heard worldwide and is regularly
  performed throughout Europe, America,
  Australasia, and Asia.
• Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish virtuoso
  percussionist. She was the first full-time solo
  percussionist in 20th-century western society.
  She has played many Psathas works.

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Evelyn Glennie-percussionist

• Glennie has been profoundly deaf since age 12.
• Mild
• for adults between 25 and 40 dB
• for children between 20 and 40 dB
• Moderate between 41 and 55 dB
• Moderately severe between 56 and 70 dB
• Severe between 71 and 90 dB
• Profound 90 dB or greater
• This does not inhibit her ability to perform at
  the international level. She regularly plays
  barefoot for both live performances and studio
  recordings, to better "feel" the music.

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• Psathas has written extensively for Evelyn
  Glennie, who, in her New York debut devoted
  nearly half her programme to his work, as he is
  also for acclaimed percussionists The Safri Duo.
  His percussion-oriented Matre's Dance and Drum
  Dances, are fast becoming standard repertoire.

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• His music is energetic and vibrant, with a
  passionate exuberance that is a product of his
  Greek heritage. In his music one can hear both
  the Western classical tradition as well as the
  kinetic enthusiasm found in jazz and folk music.
• Greece has many instruments in common with other
  countries due to the closeness to those
  cultures.(Slavic,Albanian,Italian)

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• Middle eastern music and European music is
  reflected in Greek culture, so Greece has a mix
  of East and West.
• Large family gatherings always include food and
  music in this culture so simple held instruments
  or body percussion, song and dance are common-
  place.

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Omnifenix

• Michael Brecker and the Orchestra Sinfonica
  dell'Emilia-Romagna 'Toscanini' premiered his
  saxophone concerto Omnifenix, in 2000 in Bologna
  at a large outdoor concert and broadcast through
  out Europe. Critics described this piece as a
  true hybrid of jazz and western art music.

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Te Papa

• Closer to home, his music opened the doors of Te
  Papa in 1998, and in 1997 his percussion concerto
  was premiered by Glennie and the NZSO.  He has
  written for the NZSO and the Auckland
  Philharmonia, pianists Michael Houstoun, Deidre
  Irons, David Guerin, Dan Poynton, as well as the
  NZ Trio, the NZ String Quartet, the Kandinsky
  Ensemble and Saxcess.

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View from Olympus

• The Furies
• The Furies were avenging spirits of retributive
  justice whose task was to punish crimes outside
  the reach of human justice. Their names were
  Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone. This movement
  contains an adapted transcription of a fragment
  of improvised playing by Greek violinist Stathis
  Koukoularis.

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• II To Yelasto Paithi (The Smiling Child)
• This is the closest Ive come to expressing, in
  a way not possible with the spoken or written
  word, the feelings inspired by my precious
  children, Emanuel and Zoe. In this movement is
  also caught the summer I spent working on the
  concerto at my parents house just outside the
  village of Nea Michaniona a house perched on a
  cliff which looks down on the Aegean and up to Mt
  Olympus.

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• III Dance of the Maenads
• Draped in the skins of fawns, crowned with
  wreaths of ivy and carrying the thyrsos (a staff
  wound round with ivy leaves and topped with a
  pine cone), the Maenads roamed the mountains and
  woods, seeking to assimilate the potency of the
  beasts that dwelled there and celebrating their
  god Dionysos with song, music and dance.

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Part III continued..

• The human spirit demands Dionysiac ecstasy to
  those who accept it, the experience offers
  spiritual power. For those who repress the
  natural force within themselves or refuse it to
  others, it is transformed into destruction, both
  of the innocent and the guilty. When possessed by
  Dionysos, the Maenads became savage and brutal.
  They plunged into a frenzied dance, obtaining an
  intoxicating high and a mystical ecstasy that
  gave them unknown powers, making them the match
  of the bravest hero.

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Reference

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Psathas
• Accessed 9th March 2011