The State Conservatory of Thessaloniki
the heterotopias of the piano in the east
scientific & artistic three-day convention
11-13 December 2107
The State Conservatory of Thessaloniki is organizing a three-day scientific and artistic event, which shall have the piano, beyond its usual context, as a focal point.
Monday, 11 December, 17:00
Nikos Ordoulidis, pianist and musicologist, shall conduct an interactive workshop, which shall concern issues of popular aesthetic and performance practices. The workshop is for proficient pianists, the repertoire material on which they shall work available on the following link:
www.eastern-piano.com/el/blog/169-ergastiri.htm
Registrations at info@ordoulidis.gr
The workshop shall be available to a limited number of participants.
Tuesday, 12 December, 18:30
The musicologist George Kokkonis shall present, in the form of a dialogue with Nikos Ordoulidis, certain cases of historical discography which originate from a wide geographical span (Romania, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia et al.), where we see the piano in a role different to that of the classical West. Reproduction of audio material from the regions in question shall be listened to and apart from issues of musical aesthetic; various cultural aspects linked to the musical products shall be examined.
Wednesday, 13 December, 21:00
Akis Pitsanis, with Nikos Ordoulidis, shall present a recital for piano and voice, which shall include covers of popular songs from Greek repertoire.
Admission for all three days is free.
www.odiokrat.gr
www.eastern-piano.com
www.ordoulidis.gr
Nikos Ordoulidis
Nikos Ordoulidis studied at the University of Leeds, England (PhD in popular musicology and master’s degree in music performance) and at the University of Macedonia, Greece (bachelor’s degree in ‘music science and art’). His research interests revolve around the condition of musical syncretism which regulates musical genres and idioms. Moreover, the performance techniques and pedagogical approach to the piano constitute another aspect of his research activity. He is an active composer with five discographical works; a member of the Modern Greek Studies Association, of the Greek branch of The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, and of the Hellenic Musicological Society. He has been teaching as an Academic Scholar at the School of Popular and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus since 2015 and he has published two musicological books: The recording career of Vasílis Tsitsánis (1936-1983). An analysis of his music and the problems of research into Greek popular music (Ianos, 2014); Cloudy Sunday and the Akathyst Hymn – A Mirroring or a Reflection? (Fagotto, 2017).
George Kokkonis
George Kokkonis is a musicologist, Assistant Professor at the School of Popular and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus (Arta). He comes from Serres, is married and the father of two boys. He studied in Paris; composition (École Normale), jazz composition-orchestration (CIM) and mainly musicology at the University of Paris VIII, where he completed his PhD with his Thesis concerning the question of Greekness in Neo-Hellenic music(La question de la grécité dans la musique néohellénique, De Boccard-Association Pierre Belon, Paris 2008). In 1998 he proposes the establishment of the School of Popular and Traditional Music, to which he is appointed professor in 2002. After lengthy on-site research, he issues monographs on the traditional music of Epirus (2008) and Thessaly (pending printing) under the auspice of The Hellenic Parliament Foundation. He supervised the publication of works by Ioannis A Papaioannou and was in charge of the collective volume Création musicale et nationalismes dans le Sud-Est européen (Études Balkaniques No 13, Paris 2007). His publications concern all expressions of Greek music, scholarly and popular.
Akis Pitsanis
Akis Pitsanis is a musician from Kastoria. From the age of seven the oral study of music in his home environment was nurtured, soon after he went on to study the piano for four years. At the same time, he had vocal lessons and participated in a children’s choir as a soloist, participating in concerts and events which took place in the region of Macedonia and Athens. As a teenager he composed and was active in bands of the metal scene, one of which has a demo titled Telma. At the age of 20 he enrols at the organ construction school of Kastoria and on completion of his studies moves to Thessaloniki, where he lives and works as a musician for five years. At the same time, he studies and develops his singing technique by listening to singers of the urban popular song from the interwar period. He creates musical forms with which he makes appearances in Greece and abroad. He is credited with, among others, participations in discography and collaborations with famous and accomplished artists. Since 2012 he has been a student at the School of Popular and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus in Arta.
