Stephanos Vassiliadis

Stefanos Vassiliadis (Born 1933 - died in Athens in May 23, 2004) was a prominent Greek contemporary composer, musicologist, music teacher and choir director. He was a musician who acted upon a wide range of fields: music education (not only teaching and writing music books), musicology (with his book "For Music" and articles and entries in magazines and encyclopedias), choir and children's orchestras, the theater, state-of-the-art synthesis techniques, promotion of those same techniques, etc. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Music, the "Hellenic Musical Circle" (EMK) and the "Friends of Skalkotas Society".

Biography

Stefanos Vassiliadis was born in 1933 in Drama. He studied music with Yannis Nalantidis and Byzantine music with Athanasios Konstantinidis. Later, he continued his studies at the Greek Conservatory (with Ourania Artemis-Ioannidou and G. Papaioannou), graduating with Excellence.

He dealt with the study and dissemination of Greek traditional music, with musicological research of folklore and acoustic elements (he formed a record of natural and anthropogenic sounds by region) and with the study and archiving of the modern Greek music. He was also a general secretary and director of the Center for Contemporary Music Research (KYSME), which he founded in 1979 with Iannis Xenakis and Giannis G. Papaioannou.

In 1953 he became a professor of science at public and private schools (from 1968 onward at Athens College). He was the Chairman of the Committee for the Writing of Musical School Books and a Leader of Public School Music Education (he contributed to the creation of the Pallini Music High School). He was also Artistic Director of the Conservatory "Eumusia" and the director of the Choir of the Palace, as well as a founder and director of the Blokfloten Youth Orchestra.

He was the artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Athens (Experimental Orchestra) and professor at the Department of Music Studies of the University of Athens (1991-94). He was also a music partner of the NTUA as a composer conductor and music teacher of the ancient drama dance, of which he was the organizing officer (1961-1968). He was then the musical director of the National Theater (1968-1978).

He taught music in about 80 ancient dramas and theatrical plays of Greek and foreign dramaturgy. As a composer he worked to expand the possibilities of contemporary styles and to connect them with the Greek musical tradition. He was one of the closest associates of Jani Christou in the last year of his life.

He has been honored with the Silver and the Golden Cross of the Phoenix. His students included: Sotiria (Titos) Adam, Leonard Valenstein, Michalis Gargallionis, Dimitris Kanaris, Dimitris Karageorgos, Dimitris Lionis, Konstantinos Lygnos, Kostas Mantzoros, Kostas Moschos, Michalis Messinis, Evdoxia Balani, Panagiotis Stamopoulos, Katerina Jiedaki, and others.

He died in Athens on 23 May 2004.

Works

His creative work encompasses mainly three fields: children's singing, theatrical music and electro-acoustic composition. Especially in children's singing, he worked to emphasize the Greek-style tropical elements and rhythms so that, along with unpredictable transformations, melodic developments, rhythmic interlaces and various falls, the children's interest towards music was nurtured.

Has written about 100 songs, many of which are very successful, and the song "Το γλυκό τσαμπί" (with lyrics by M. Goumenopoulos) won 1st Prize in the International Competition "Unisef 1979" (among 300 songs from 150 countries).

His theatrical production output includes music for 15 ancient tragedies and 30 dramas, such as: "Iphigenia in Avlidi" (1963), "Hippolytus" (1964), "Troades" (1966), "Baches" ), "Trachins" (1970), "Perses" (1971), "Agamemnon" (1972), "Oedipus tyrant" (1973), etc. (1965), "The Lyre of Gero Nicolas" (1965), "Don Zuan" (Moliere, 1966), "The Fall of the Night" (by G. Theotokas, 1967) , "Psychosavaton and Divine Dream" (1968), etc.

His electroacoustic pieces include "The Secret Songs of Silence" (1970), "Lies" (1972), "Kouklokosmos" (1973), and "En Pyri", which was composed in 1973 but recorded in 1976 by Andreas Rodousakis on double-bass and the composer himself on the mixing desk of Radio Sweden Studio in Stockholm. "En Pyri" is a composition for tape and double-bass written in the memory of Jani Christou, composed three years after a multi-fatal car crash that caused the untimely deaths of Anastasia Vassiliadi (first wife of Stephanos Vassiliadis), Jani Christou (acclaimed composer, close friend and collaborator of Stephanos Vassiliadis) and of Christous’s wife Theresia Christou Choremi. The title "En Pyri", translating as In Fire, comes from the First Epistle of the Corinthians “..for the day will disclose it, because it is revealed in fire..”, referring to that what remains after death, or in the composer’s words: “man’s song-creation is the only thing that can withstand and overcome destruction”.

Discography

His works can be found in the albums: "The Mimika the Day" (Odeon OMCG52, 1967), "4th Greek Week of Contemporary Music" (Columbia 70199, 1973), "Greek Electronic Music 1" (Columbia CSDG67, 1974).

Text adapted from the Greek Wikipedia.