Artistic Statement
I prefer musical material that is raw, that is to say it mimics physical gestures and phenomena, such as breathing, shouting, whispering, the pulsation of the heart, the undulation of sea waves; and material that makes references to archetypal musical expressions, such as lamentations, drones, and heterophonic singing. This material undergoes two different compositional processes: the first develops and transforms it according to highly formalized processes, which are informed by ideas from mathematics and computational sciences, such as group theory, evolutionary algorithms, and logic circuits. The second compositional practice takes the results of the first and treats them the way a cubist painter treats reality: it shatters them into a million dimensions and recomposes them in a subjective, nonlinear narrative, akin to the process of reconstruction we undergo in our imagination when we try to recall an event that is distant, but striking.
Full Biography
Stratis Minakakis is a composer, conductor and pedagogue whose work engages with memory, cultural identity, and art as social testimony; it also explores the rich possibilities engendered by the interaction between arts and sciences.
Described as “emotional, to the point of viscerality” (Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project) and “an alluring haze” (New York Times), his music has been commissioned and performed by leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles across Europe, North America, and Japan, including the Grammy award-wining Crossing Choir, Prism Saxophone Quartet, and Partch Ensemble. Other notable recent collaborators include saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl, violinist Gabriella Diaz, cellists TJ Borden and Annie Jacobs-Perkins, Duo Axis, bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward, the Valencia International Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Jihye Chang, Court Circuit, Ergon Ensemble, soprano Nina Dante, flutists Dalia Chin and Orlando Cela, Ensemble du Bout du Monde, Ensemble Counter)induction, percussionist Harrison Honor, and baritone Tyler Bouque. Upcoming projects include a concerto for two pianos tuned one quarter-tone apart and wind orchestra, commissioned by Stephen Drury, a concerto for baritone saxophone and chamber ensemble, commissioned by Don-Paul Kahl and the Kuraia Ensemble, a new work for Duo Entre Nous, and a new work for the Loadbang ensemble.
As a conductor, Stratis Minakakis has directed and coached numerous chamber music and larger ensembles in contemporary music. Performance highlights include the U.S. premiere of Sciarrino’s monumental Quaderno di Strada (Alinèa Ensemble), the Boston premiere of Ligeti’s Nouvelles Aventures (Alinèa Ensemble), and the world premieres of Mathew Rosenblum’s Gymnopédies Nos. 3-7/Kiki Wears Tasha (NotaRiotous Ensemble), Ken Ueno’s New Lilacs and his own Skiagrafies (Partch Ensemble; Prism Saxophone Quartet; released on XAS records) and John Aylward’s opera Oblivion (Nina Guo, soprano; Lukas Papenfussclein, tenor; Tyler Bouque, Cailin Marcel Manson, baritones; ECCE ensemble; released on New Focus Recordings). His list of world or Boston premieres also includes works by Katherine Balch, Isaac Blumfield, Linxi Chen, Xiaofeng Jiang, Fabien Levy, Julien Malaussena, John Mallia, Katarina Miljkovic, Dimitris Minakakis, Ezra Sims, and Samuel Taylor.
A highly sought-after instructor and lecturer, he has been teaching in the Composition and Music Theory Departments of New England Conservatory since 2008. Alumni of his studio have pursued distinguished international careers and received prestigious awards, including the Rome Prize and the Voix Nouvelles Prize. His pedagogical interests extend to innovative curriculum building in the areas of 21st-century musicianship and computational creativity. As a member of the “Theory Reimagined” team, he was instrumental in creating the “Music Literacy and Musicianship" curriculum at New England Conservatory. As the Co-Chair of NEC-NEXT, he coordinated the development of the Computational Creativity Program and introduced the Computer-Assisted Analysis and Composition elective course. He has presented lectures on his music, as well as the music of Xenakis, Ligeti, Lachenmann and Carter in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recent engagements include the Third Program of the Greek National Radio, the Valencia International Performance Academy, Ithaca College, Mannes Conservatory, and the University of California, Berkeley.
His compositional and academic work have been supported by grants and fellowships from the New England Conservatory, the Pew Center of Arts and Heritage, Fondation Royaumont, the International Society of Contemporary Music, the Aikaterini Laskaridou Foundation, and the George and Elizabeth Crumb Fellowship in Music Composition. He was awarded the Composition Prize at the Takefu International Festival. During his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania he received the Nitze Prize in Composition (2007, 2008), the Dean’s Scholar Award (2007), and the Hallstead Prize in Composition (2005, 2006). He also received the Prism Young Composers’ Award of Prism Saxophone Quartet (2005) and the Toru Takemitsu Award of the US-Japan Society of Boston (2004). His pedagogical work at the New England Conservatory has received two Board of Trustees Commendations (2024, 2021) and the prestigious Louis Krasner Award for Teaching Excellence (2015), the youngest faculty to have ever received this award in the history of the institution. At the University of Pennsylvania he received the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2007) and the Teaching Award by Graduate Students (2007).
Stratis Minakakis completed his PhD in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior studied include a MM in Composition at the New England Conservatory (summa cum laude, distinction in performance, Pi Kappa Lambda) and an AB at Princeton University (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). He currently lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts with his family and teaches Composition and Music Theory at the New England Conservatory.
Press
Album Review: December 15, 2024 | the arts fuse
Classical Album Reviews: "Boston Etudes" and "American Sketches"
Album Review: April 14, 2024 | The Saxophone Symposium
Don-Paul Kahl: Go Within
Concert Review: Feb. 7, 2019 | Boston Musical Intelligencer
NEC Composers Shine
Album Review: June 1, 2018 | Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review
The Crossing, If There Were Water, Music of Stratis Minakakis and Gregory W. Brown, Donald Nally
Album Review: May, 2018 | Gramophone
Shadow Etchings: New Music for Flute
Concert Review: April 7, 2018 | Chicago Classical Review
Vocal virtuosity and imagination open Resonant Bodies Festival
Album Review: April 14, 2017 | National Sawdust
PRISM Quartet, Color Theory
Concert Review: June 15, 2016 | The New York Times
Man, Can You Hear That Crazy Forest Green?
Press Quotes
“[Lowell Etudes] offers a turbulent study of sound and silence...contrasting little details—quietly sustained pitches, sudden flourishes of notes, and the liek—stand out strongly.”
“[For Felipe M.] invites the audience to experience an “inward journey.”
“[Crossings’ Cycle is] a musical score that is freshly and vividly situated in a sort of ancient ritualistic-in-Contemporary-Modern harmonically spicy-tangy palette extraordinaire”
“Greek composer Stratis Minakakis’ work is founded on his rich cultural history, and maintains a strong sense of the ancient in a modern aesthetic. It is highly emotional, to the point of viscerality. ”
“The shadow world of Skiagrafies proved to be an alluring haze”
“ [Skiagrafies I] proceeds, wraithlike, through subtle, striking shifts; the effect is something like watching shadows cast by clouds while the sun arcs slowly across the sky, the resulting permutations continually waxing and waning in intensity.”
“[AGGELOI III] is a kind of hyper-intense miniature vocal scena with six text lines running at once…truly virtuosic piece of vocal theater.”
“The outbursts [of Contrafactum], packed with active lines that shattered the intense, unending stasis, felt most welcome, as everything felt rather restless and intense throughout.”