Theme: Path of Tonality and Harmonic Symmetry

Language: English

Speaker: Prof. George Tsontakis

Host: Prof. Yiwen Shen (CUHK-Shenzhen)

Date&Time: Jan. 14, 2025 (Tue.) 17:00

Venue: Lecture Classroom 102, Teaching Building (MUS)

Visitors are requested to scan the QR code for registration.

Abstract

Until the 20th century, composers relied on major and minor tonalities. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) revolutionized this, paving the way for modern diversity. Today, genre lines blur with global influences. This talk explores "sophistication" in music through examples and introduces "Heaven" framework of harmonic symmetries and simplicity, emphasizing universal scales.

About the Speaker

George Tsontakis

Recently called "A giant of the American music scene" by Gramophone Magazine, George Tsontakis received two of the richest prizes in classical music: the International Grawemeyer Award in 2005 and the Ives Living from the American Academy. He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and in Rome with Franco Donatoni. Born in Astoria, NY into Cretan heritage, he has become a recognized figure in Greece with performances worldwide each season. Most of his music has been recorded by Hyperion, Koch, INNOVA, and NAXOS, including fifteen works for orchestra, over five hours of orchestral music, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition.

He served as Composer-in-Residence with the Aspen Music Festival for 40 years, where he was the founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, the Albany Symphony, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among others. He is a Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Bard College Conservatory.

His recent premieres include works for London's Mobius Ensemble, the Barlow Endowment and large-scale pieces for the Boston Symphony and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, a Requiem for the Albany Symphony as well as a violin concerto for Gary Levinson and the Dallas Symphony. His "The Air of Greece," an opera-drama on Lord Byron was commissioned and premiered by the Greek National Opera in December 2021. NAXOS' release of three of his concertos with the Albany Symphony was recently heralded as one of National Public Radios's "Top Ten Classical Recordings." The NAXOS CD with his "Sonnets" by the Boston Symphony, BBC Magazine declared that the work was "the sparklingly expressive jewel in this crown." He lives in New York's Catskill Mountains.