Interviews with tTt Music Talk

In this two-part interview, I sit down with the thoughtful musician Tanni Wang.

Description: tTt sits down with Stratis Minakakis, acclaimed composer, conductor, and professor at the New England Conservatory, for an in-depth conversation on music and artistic inquiry. Known for his intellectually rigorous and emotionally charged work, Minakakis explores the intersection of structure, expression, and philosophy in contemporary composition. Drawing from a wide range of influences—from language and literature to silence and sound—he offers a compelling look into how music can question, challenge, and transform the way we understand the world.

VIDEO: Thalassografia for Saxophone Quartet

Enjoy this superb performance of Thalassografia-Small Nepenthean for saxophone quartet with Ensemble du Bout du Monde.

Ensemble du Bout du Monde
Noa Mick, soprano saxophone
Simona Castria, alto saxophone
Salvatore Castellano, tenor saxophone
Don-Paul Kahl, baritone saxophone - ‪@donpaulkahl‬

Performed Live at New England Conservatory
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
19 October 2025

Programme Note (written by Don-Paul Kahl, based on texts by Stratis Minakakis):
The title of Stratis Minakakis’s Thalassografia–Small Nepenthean intertwines etymology, myth, and personal remembrance. Thalassografia translates as “sea-etching,” evoking the constant motion of the waves, while nepenthean refers to the mythical flowers in Homeric poetry believed to banish grief (ne = away, penthos = sorrow). The work was composed in memory of Minakakis’s aunt, who passed away from cancer in 2018, and draws upon Greek literary images of the sea as an agent of lethe, erasing sorrow and easing the burden of memory.

Throughout the piece, the music oscillates like the sea itself: calm and meditative in some passages, overwhelming and threatening in others, yet always charged with awe. Within nano-microtonal textures, listeners can trace hidden lamentation lines, inspired by Mediterranean singing practices ranging from northern Greece to Sicily, Corsica, and North Africa. These lines breathe an expressive, human voice into the soundscape, recalling traditions of vocal lament that blur the boundary between grief and consolation.

Alongside this imagery of waves and song runs another structural principle: genetic sequencing. Much of the musical material derives from intervallic “codes” that generate families of scales. While each sequence is unique, their similarity suggests shared DNA. In the fourth movement, this code deliberately degenerates: scales crystallize into chords, which then fracture into distorted remnants of the original material. This musical erosion—marked by heavy yet sustained accents—functions like a primitive script of mutation and eventual destruction, offering a final gesture of fragility and transformation.

With its fusion of myth, memory, and sound design, Thalassografia–Small Nepenthean invites us to hear the sea not only as a force of nature but also as a metaphor for remembrance, loss, and renewal.

John Aylward’s opera film “Oblivion” wins Best Musical Film at Cannes World Film Festival

Stratis Minakakis, music director and conductor

EarRelevant: “Boston-based composer and librettist John Aylward’s chamber opera film Oblivion has won Best Musical Film at this year’s Cannes World Film Festival, marking its first major international recognition.

The 70-minute one-act work, inspired by Dante’s Purgatorio, was produced by Ravenser Odd Productions with independent filmmaker Graham Swon as co-producer. Directed by Laine Rettmer with cinematography by Alice Millar, the film stars Ty Boque, Nina Guo, Lukas Pappenfuscline, and Cailin Marcel Manson.”

Learn more

Credits:

The Bound Man / The King: Lukas Papenfusscline, tenor
The Hunter: Cailin Marcel Manson, baritone
First Wanderer: Tyler Boque, baritone
Second Wanderer: Nina Guo, soprano

Laura Williamson, viola
Issei Herr, cello
Greg Chudzik, contrabass
Daniel Lippel, electric guitar
John Aylward, electronics
Tianyi Wang, electronic sound design assistant
Stratis Minakakis, music director & conductor

Lowell Etudes on WUSF's Modern Notebook

Lowell Etudes was featured on the June 29th, 2025 episode of Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline (hour two, final selection).

Hour 1

  • Water Dance: III. Very lightly, like a harp by Karen Tanaka

  • Brian Dozier Brown’s Left Wanting

  • Seesaw by Karl Mitze

  • Miriama Young’s Wood Wide Web II

  • String Quartet No. 12, "Her Charms Invited" by Ian Wilson

  • Minoo Dixon’s A Whale's Cry

  • la flor más linda by Gilda Lyons

Hour 2

  • Gabriela Ortiz’s Mambo Ninón

  • Double Concerto for Oboe, Violin and Orchestra by Thierry Escaich

  • Stratis Minakakis’s Lowell Etudes – Three Etchings on Solitude

Program Info Here

Phoni Avras Leptis @ Goethe-Institut

Goethe-Institut Boston and Abstraction Music Group presents 

Breath in Music: A contemporary program featuring cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins and pianist Katelyn Vahala

Wednesday, March 5, 8:00 pm
Goethe-Institut Boston
170 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02116

Sonata for Cello and Piano "The Fool" (2024)                             Octavio Vazquez (b. 1972)

World premiere

Pression (1969/rev.2010)                                                           Helmut Lachenmann (b. 1935)

Brief intermission

Sonata for Solo Cello (1960)                                       Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970)

let us breathe (2020)                                                                        Jeffrey Mumford (b. 1955)

Rise (2024)                                                                                           Daniel Temkin (b. 1986)

Phoni Avras Leptis (2022)                                                         Stratis Minakakis (b. 1979)     

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/15FudFcQvd/

Artists' Conversation on "Escuchando"

I talk with the collaborators of Escuchando, a video installation premiering Friday, September 15, 2023, discussing the background of this multifaceted work with visual artist Marsia Alexander-Clarke and Carduus director Holly Druckman, who provide their insight into the project, the creative process, and the detailed and collaborative spirit of the video, Thank you for listening!

For the video premiere, visit here: https://www.stratisminakakis.info/escuchando-premiere

About Marsia Alexander-Clarke, visual artist (https://videoasmark.com/)

About Stratis Minakakis, composer (https://stratisminakakis.info/)

About Holly Druckman & Carduus (https://www.druckmanholly.com/about)

About David Stevens & Abstraction Music Group, moderator (https://www.abstractionmusicgroup.com/)

Afes for Solo Violin Premiere

The work “Afes” (Greek for touches), explores a world of fine and frigate gradations at the limits of perception through the sense of touch, . Violinist-composer Tania Sikelianou will premiere the first movement of the work on Saturday, December 11th, at 8 pm, in Athens Conservatory.

Το έργο “Αφές”, για ενισχυμένο βιολί, αναζητά μέσω της αίσθησης της αφής έναω χώρο λεπτών και εύθραστων αποχρώσεων στα όρια του αισθητού. Η βιολονίστα και συνθέτις Τάνια Σικελιανού θα παρουσιάσει το πρώτο μέρος του έργου “Αφές” για σόλο βιολί το Σάββατο, 11 Δεκεμβρίου, στις 8 μ.μ. στο Ωδείο Αθηνών.

Click for more info
 

Album Release feat. For Felipe M

Don-Paul Kahl_Go Within.png

We are excited to share the recording of For Felipe M, written for and in collaboration with Don-Paul Kahl on solo baritone saxophone. This work is featured on Don-Paul’s album Go Within and is available for purchase here.

For more info about the work, including program notes, visit here: https://www.stratisminakakis.info/for-felipe-m

Click for more info
 

Color Theory: Harry Partch Ensemble and the Prism Quartet

From April to June of 2016, I will join the Harry Partch Ensemble and Prism Quartet for the realization of a new piece, Skiagrafies (Shadow Etchings, in Greek), composed for saxophone quartet and Harry Partch instruments. The project also features new works by composers Steven Mackey and Ken Ueno, and will include a performance of Harry Partch’s Castor and Pollux, one of his most iconic works. We will start rehearsing in Los Angeles in April and will present the program in Philadelphia and New York in early June. In the weeks prior to the performances well as a series of concerts, lectures, and activities that will take place in Philadelphia and New York City.

 

Color Theory: Harry Partch Ensemble and the Prism Quartet Composers Forum

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June 11, 2016
Composers Steven Mackey, Ken Ueno and I will join composer David Ludwig in a panel discussion of our work, focusing on the new pieces composed for the Color Theory project. 

Curtis Institute of Music
Field Concert Hall
11:00 AM

Entrance free, but tickets required