Description

The first concert of the Composition Masterclass Cycle invites us on a sonic journey, where each work captures images—natural, psychological, imaginary. Margarita Ermidou focuses on the timbral aspect of the ensemble. She composes timbral textures in which all instruments contribute equally, start and stop imperceptibly, thus exploring an inner world of fluidity and micro-variations. Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis draws inspiration from a text on anxiety by Freud, composes a sonic psychological portrait, and calls us to reflect on the fear that pervades human relationships as well as on our obsession with confronting anxiety. Ismini Beck evokes images from a house full of resonances: whispers, voices, and melodies weave a rich timbral landscape and emerge with their own identity and memory. Pavlos Katsivelis juxtaposes seemingly disjointed images that constantly interrupt one another in an attempt at synthesis: the delirious realm of a baby who cries and gradually calms down, a father cooking but burning the food, or the electrostatic charge of a cloud building up above the earth.

Maro Konstantinopoulou unveils a pure sonic image, where sounds of air gradually transform into pitches, as if we were witnessing the birth of a new language. Joseph Papadatos draws us into the Castalian Spring of Delphi, translating the natural landscape and mythological forces that surround it into rich harmonic material and a continuous sonic flow. Finally, Iason Maroulis constructs an idiosyncratic visual environment, where the double bassist and the trombonist come to the centre of attention and are surrounded by a constellation of sonic satellites, giving prominence to a unique encounter between their two characters. Tactile and intangible images, invisible or latent, scenes of everyday life or inner worlds, converge in a concert where sounds come alive and invite us into poetic, dreamlike and unexpected worlds.

At a glance – Synopsis

Margarita Ermidou

in the spectrum of consciousness

for flute, trumpet, violin, percussion, and piano (2025)

Duration 9’

Composer's notes:
In the work lies the idea that awareness is not uniform, but unfolds across a continuum of states and shades. Just as light disperses into colours, so does consciousness encompass moments of clarity, dreamlike fluidity, deep introspection or intense extroversion. Within this spectrum, memory and imagination coexist, logic and emotion intertwine, silence and inner dialogue share the same space. It is a dynamic realm where the mind drifts between extremes, while the soul oscillates between the broader dimensions of its existence. Within this spectrum, time loses its absolute linearity and becomes rhythm, a pulse that connects the past, the present, and the possibilities of the future in a constantly shifting state.

— Margarita Ermidou

Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis

Κ’•αν•τη•θεσ;•εις

for voice, flute, viola and percussion (2025)

Duration 5’

Composer's notes:
A playful piece about how the reality of human relationships and our individual emotions, such as fear, come between us and influence our relations in an absolute, often ominous and distorting, way. We put the blame on everyday pressure, stress, and anxiety. But, often, even our attempts, so fashionable these days, to deal with anxiety become obsessive.

— Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis

Ismini Beck

Echoes in My House

for flute, trombone, viola, double bass and piano (2025)

Duration 8’

Composer's notes:
As the title suggests, the work refers to sounds that resonate inside a house. In every house. It is a timbral piece that builds atmospheres—sometimes fragile, sometimes dense, sometimes airy. These atmospheres are formed from air transforming into sound, and sound dissolving back into air. The sound is sometimes fluid, sometimes static—and, through this stillness, the intensity of immobility is expressed. Within the piece, multiple timbral textures arise and intertwine; textures that are not exhausted merely in melody or rhythm, but spread spectrally. Each instrument functions as a distinct entity that nevertheless interacts with the others. The sounds of the instruments interact, converse, sometimes merge, sometimes clash, and sometimes fall silent together.

— Ismini Beck

Pavlos Katsivelis

pikipo

for soprano and five musicians (2025)

Duration 11’

Composer's notes:
The electrostatic charge of the cloud hovering above the hill is continually increasing. The potential difference between cloud and land is growing. The charge makes the mad leap towards the ground. The lightning bolt not only reveals the charge’s invisible growth, but also interrupts it. Karl Marx introduces the concept of the proletariat to describe social movement by indicating the central void of bourgeois societies as they began to emerge. The owners of capital find themselves trapped in a retrospective rearrangement: they are no longer industrious, but rulers. From then on, their capital no longer belongs to them. The father next door, faithful to the schedule he has drafted, seems certain that he will finish the lentil soup he is preparing, so that he can take care of the baby in the right way and at the right time. A loud cry interrupts his plans. The smirk that forms on his face turns to terror as the smell of burnt lentils surrounds him. The text of the piece is based on excerpts from Alain Badiou's L’Éthique. Essai sur la conscience du Mal (Greek trans. Vlassis Skolidis, Kostas Bobas, Scripta, Athens 1998).

— Pavlos Katsivelis

nocturne

for double bass, percussion and piano (2025)

Duration 4’

→ The two pieces will be performed as a unified work, with the latter (nocturne) inserted into the former (pikipo). 

Composer's notes:
Nocturnes refer to the sense of evening repose, focusing on its inner movement. This brief piece attempts to illuminate the folds of inaction and expose the deceptive sense of immobility that occurs during periods when intention is absent.

— Pavlos Katsivelis

Maro Konstantinopoulou

First Comes the Relapse

for bass clarinet, trumpet, cello and percussion (2025)

Duration 4’

Composer's notes:

It catches you while ironing the whites, or at the moment you dive deep, or at both those times—or even at a third time!

— Maro Konstantinopoulou

Joseph Papadatos

Castalia

for chamber ensemble, op.102 (2013)

Duration 14’

Composer's notes:
The work Castalia was composed in 2013. On Mount Parnassus, where the shining Phaedriades rocks meet the earth, next to the Oracle and the Navel of Mother Earth, flows the inexhaustible Castalian Spring—the spring of purification and of the Muses. It is the sacred place where the eternal union is enacted, where the radiant Apollonian light meets the chthonic Mother deities. Inspired by a vision of dreamlike clarity, the work imagines the poet Orpheus transcending opposites and launching existence toward bliss and immortality. Rather than descriptive, Castalia unfolds through minimal harmonic material—subtly shifting textures, at times polyphonic, at others homophonic—allowing silence and resonance to carry the spirit of the Spring.

— Joseph Papadatos

Iason Maroulis

Ískioi

for trombone, double bass and small ensemble (2025)

Duration 13’

Composer's notes:
Two figures reveal the relationship between them. Surrounded by a varied web of sound satellites, they interact and define each other. At times, they emerge from the whole by projecting their “voice” as distinct subjects and, at other times, they recede into it, subsumed into a broader collective stream.

— Iason Maroulis

Creative team – Cast

Soprano: Niki Lada 
Tenor: Christos Kechris 

Ergon Ensemble

Flute, alto flute, bass flute: Nikos Nikopoulos
Clarinet, bass clarinet: Kostas Tzekos 
French horn: Manos Ventouras 
Trumpet: Spiros Arkoudis 
Trombone: Andreas-Roland Theodorou 
Violin: Kostas Panagiotidis, Vasilis Soukas, Dimitra Triantafyllou 
Viola: Krystalia Gaitanou 
Cello: Alexandros Botinis, Dimitris Travlos 
Double bass: Nikos Tsoukalas 
Percussion: Babis Taliadouros 
Piano: Stefanos Nasos
Piano, celesta: Christos Sakellaridis 

Photos & videos

Photos