Description

The third concert of the Composition Masterclass Cycle directs our attention to the formal structures and sculptural qualities of sound. Each composer moulds their materials—timbre, rhythm, structures, language—and transforms them into mechanisms that generate new materials. Ismini Beck amalgamates the sounds of the human voice and the trumpet, expands their timbral palette and constructs a hyper-instrument, a unified body, where the two instruments breathe and vibrate as one. Iason Maroulis composes a condensed musical fragment, a form of sonic sculpture, which focuses on the details and subtle transformations of sound’s inner structures. Giorgos Vavoulas engages with the logic of a canon as an invisible thread that passes from one instrument to another, while the others adopt different roles. Thus, the composition is built upon a solid foundation while, at the same time, remains uninterruptedly changing, like the in-between space that its title suggests: fluid, transitional, open to multiple readings.

Periklis Liakakis explores the timbral potential of the three instruments and builds the form as a collage of different timbral combinations. Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis transforms data from neuroscience experiments into musical parameters, constructing a new morphology where the scientific world finds artistic expression. Nicolas Tzortzis is inspired by physics, transforms changes in the gravitational force of a black hole into extreme musical retardations and stretching of sound, and takes us on a journey into a liminal sonic universe. Finally, Maro Konstantinopoulou works extensively on language as music material in itself, invents words and thus new sounds that generate new meanings. New paths are sought for shaping sound—not static but dynamic forms in constant motion, resonating, transforming, and surprising. The third concert is an invitation to hear the composers’ materials not simply as means of expression but as living mechanisms that generate new materials, and thus new, unexpected experiences.

At a glance – Synopsis

Ismini Beck

Where the Sea Is

for voice and trumpet (2025)

Duration 8’

Director's note: 
The work explores memory: the sea, the home, the blue. The voice and the trumpet function as a single instrument; together they bring the past to the forefront—sometimes tinged with nostalgia, sometimes joy, and sometimes sorrow. Each instrument is the echo of the other; at moments, their sounds meet and become a shared pulse. Together, they weave the sound of the past, the time that has not left. Fragments of thoughts, memories, emotions, and visions of a person confronting their childhood are the primary elements that resonate throughout the work. The word blue sometimes refers to the sea, sometimes to nostalgia, sometimes to each one of us.

— Ismini Beck

Iason Maroulis

I Yearn and Long For

for bass clarinet, trombone and viola (2025)

Duration 3’

Director's note: 
A glimpse of what may be a larger narrative. A complete fragment of an attempt at expression.

— Iason Maroulis

Giorgos Vavoulas

Interstitium

for string quartet (2025)

Duration 8’

Director's note: 
Interstitium refers to the fluid, continuous space that exists between internal structures—a kind of connective tissue, both physical and metaphorical. This composition unfolds as an unbroken stream, navigating through shifting spatial landscapes, fragmented or distorted memories, and altered states of consciousness. These contrasting yet interconnected episodes are held together by a unifying structural thread, offering coherence within constant transformation. The work was composed between December 2024 and April 2025 for Ergon Ensemble.

— Giorgos Vavoulas

Periklis Liakakis

Melos

for flute, cello and piano (2005, rev. 2025)

Duration 9’

Director's note: 
The work was written in 2005 for the IAMA ensemble and revised in 2025. I attempted to combine three instruments with completely different timbres and abilities. The composition technique is a kind of collage where various elements presented during the work are combined differently each time.

— Periklis Liakakis

Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis

Phren

for eight musicians (2025)

Duration 8’

Director's note: 
One aspect of music that always fascinates me is its ability to function as a living being. You get the feeling that music reacts to things and responds, looks back. Not in a poetic-artistic way, but rather as a presence that coexists with the listener in space. I am interested in pursuing this quality. In my most recent works, such as Phren, I find my inspiration in the world of neuroscience. In my music, I use correlations found in a neural system.

— Errikos Sidiropoulos-Velidis

Nicolas Tzortzis

Gravitationnel

hommage à Karl Schwarzschild

for eight musicians (2021)

Duration 13’

Director's note: 
The work experiments with the concept of dilated time. To this end, the initial section of a work written in 2015, … de ce qui est en lutte, was used and then rewritten four times slower. Three instruments were added to the original quintet so that the timbre sounds as if it has been “stretched” electronically. The idea came to me after a conversation with the physicist Manto Zampeli, who talked to me about Karl Schwarzschild’s black holes and the fact that as gravity increases, time slows down. This conversation prompted me to learn more about Schwarzschild, a brilliant scientist who died on the battlefield during World War I.

— Nicolas Tzortzis

Maro Konstantinopoulou

For 11 Performers

for soprano, tenor, and ensemble(2025)

Duration 11’

Director's note: 
An attempt to render, through text and music, the unprovoked, sudden, and seemingly unjustified attack of the self against itself. The original text is written by the composer.

— Maro Konstantinopoulou

Creative team – Cast

Artistic curator of the GNO’s Composition Workshop Cycle: Tassos Rossopoulos
Assistant to the artistic curator: Ioannis Angelakis

Musical direction: Nicolas Vassiliu
Soprano: Niki Lada 
Tenor: Christos Kechris 

Ergon Ensemble:
Piccolo, flute, bass flute: Nikos Nikopoulos 
Clarinet, bass clarinet: Kostas Tzekos 
Soprano saxophone: Guido de Flaviis 
Trumpet: Spiros Arkoudis 
Trombone: Andreas-Roland Theodorou 
Violin: Faidon Miliadis, Kostas Panagiotidis, Vasilis Soukas 
Viola: Krystalia Gaitanou 
Cello: Alexandros Botinis, Dimitris Travlos 
Double bass: Nikos Tsoukalas 
Percussion: Babis Taliadouros 
Piano: Christos Sakellaridis 

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