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Acknowledgments Engineer: Thomas Allgood, Allgood Media Services, Marietta, Georgia The recordings were made at Allgood Media Services between January and May 2011. Cover Art: Ralph Gilbert: Aegean Dreams, oil on canvas Notes on the compositions provided by the composers. Publishers: Nickitas Demos (Tonoi VII, An Empty Blouse): Sylvan Lake Press (ASCAP) George Tsontakis (Three Sighs, Three Variations): Merion Music, Inc. Theodore Antoniou (Celebration XV): available directly from the composer Christos Samaras (Ultimum III): Papagregoriou-Nakas Music Publishing House (www.panasmusic.gr)

Funding made possible through the generous support of the Center for Hellenic Studies and the School of Music at Georgia State University.

www.albanyrecords.com TROY1413 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd Theodore Antoniou | Celebration XV | Nickitas Demos tel: 01539 824008 © 2013 Albany Records made in the usa DDD Tonoi VII | An Empty Blouse | George Tsontakis warning: copyright subsists in all recordings issued under this label. Three Sighs, Three Variations | Christos Samaras | Ultimum III The Composers Christos Samaras (b. 1956) studied at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, the University of Theodore Antoniou (b. 1935) studied at the National Conservatory and the Hellenic Conservatory Music and Fine Arts in Vienna and the University of Fine Arts in Berlin with Isang Yun. He is pro- in Athens, with further studies in conducting and composition at the Hochschule für Musik in fessor of composition in the Department of Music Studies at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Munich, and the International Music Center in Darmstadt. After holding teaching positions at His awards include first prizes in the Foundation for Literature and Arts Composition Competition Stanford University, the University of Utah, and the Philadelphia Musical Academy, he became (Ministry of Culture, Athens), the ALEA III Composition Competition (Boston University) and Professor of Composition at Boston University in 1978. He is also director of the ALEA III the Macedonian Arts Company, among many others. His compositional work includes more than International Composition Competition, president of the Greek Composers’ Union since 1989, 160 compositions in almost all genres including symphonic works, chamber music, songs, choral director of the Experimental Stage of National Opera of Greece and director of the music depart- music and music for solo instruments. He has received performances throughout Europe, the ment of the Hellenic American University (H.A.U.) Many of Professor Antoniou’s compositions United States, Russia and Turkey. were commissioned by major orchestras around the world. He has received many awards and prizes, including the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship grants and the Richard Strauss Prize, as George Tsontakis (b. 1951) studied composition with and at the well as commissions from the Fromm, Guggenheim, and Koussevitzky Foundations, and from the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with at the Accademia Nazionale di city of Munich for the 1972 Olympic Games. Santa Cecilia in Rome. His music has been performed and broadcast by major orchestras, chamber ensembles, and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan. In 1995, Nickitas Demos (b. 1962) holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Cleveland Tsontakis was honored with the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Institute of Music, a Master of Music in Composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Pianist Stephen Hough’s recording of Tsontakis’s Ghost Variations on Hyperion Records was nominated Music and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the University of North Carolina at for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and was the only classical Chapel Hill. His principal teachers were Donald Erb (1927-2008) and Roger Hannay (1930-2006). recording among Time magazine’s 1998 Top Ten Recordings. In 2008, his Violin Concerto No. 2 Commissions include works for the Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta Chamber Players, was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition. and the National Association of College Wind & Percussion Instructors. He is the recipient of He received a Vilar Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin in 2002, and the University of numerous grants and awards including a MacDowell Fellowship (2012), Grand Prize in the 2004 Louisville for his Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2005. He was awarded the Charles Millennium Arts International Competition for Composers, Grand Prize in the 2005 Holyoke Ives Prize in 2007. A proficient conductor of orchestral and choral music, Tsontakis is the conductor Civic Symphony Composition Competition and 15 ASCAP Awards among others. Professor of and a founding director of the Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music School, where he Composition and Coordinator of Composition Studies at the Georgia State University School of teaches composition and directs the contemporary music series. He was an assistant professor at Music, Demos is the Founder and Artistic Director of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble. the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music in 1986–87, and has served on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. He also serves on the faculty of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Tsontakis’s music has been recorded by KOCH International, New World, and Opus One. The Music Christos Samaras: Ultimum III Theodore Antoniou: Celebration XV Ultimum III for alto and soprano saxophone and piano is based on the creation of multiple forms Celebration XV is one of my 15 pieces with the same title written for specific occasions to celebrate of contrast that lead the listener to the conclusion that balance comes as a result of heterogeneous friends, ensembles and different events. The piece, written for a rather unusual instrumental elements. In this world of a sudden and unexpected circulation, all that we need is the reverse. In ensemble (flute, alto saxophone, violin and piano), has three distinct sections. It starts with an intro- the music, virtuosity and an unclear melodic process that surprise a listener is the opposite view of duction that suggests the material of the middle section. A folk-like theme that follows is, in reality, a warm, melodic and lyric process. The piece is divided into four sections that create couples of written by adding a higher step to the beginning motive (f-e-f-d, e-f-g-e-f-d, e-f-g-a, e-f-g-a-b-flat contrasting elements. These sections include: the sudden; in front of the calm melodic line, the quick etc.). It is a theme that I used varied in two of my previous works, Octet, for wood wind quartet tempo; in front of the slow, the unexpected element; and in front of the simple needful. Under each of and string quartet (1986) and Concerto for Strings (1992). The piece, like most of my works, has these thoughts, the music grows with dissonant and consonant intervals, with very quick movements a virtuoso character and at the same time is trying to expose and use some idiomatic instrumental and slow lyric melodic lines and with the use of tonal and atonal elements. The main characteristic techniques. The piece is dedicated to the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble, who premiered it on in the building of musical thought in the melody and the harmony is the semitone. March 16, 2010, and to my colleague and friend Nickitas Demos, who initiated this piece. Nickitas Demos: An Empty Blouse (text: Helen by Giorgos Seferis; trans. Dr. Gregory Jusdanis) Nickitas Demos: Tonoi VII An Empty Blouse marks the third collaboration between myself and the noted scholar, Dr. Gregory Tonoi VII is the seventh in an ongoing series of works for solo performers. Although presented in Jusdanis, Director of Modern Greek Studies at Ohio State University. This work is a translated one contiguous movement, the work is divided into clear sections. It was written in a linear fashion setting of the poem, Helen, by Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971) a Nobel Laureate and one of the most — beginning with the first measure and writing straight through to the last with no insertions of important Greek poets of the 20th Century. The musical setting is darkly introspective throughout sections, composing a later section before an earlier section, etc. As harmonic and melodic materials and moves back and forth between sung pitches and spoken dialogue that is both reminiscent of a presented at the beginning of the piece develop throughout, each section moves further away from Greek chorus (albeit simply a single person in this case) and also serves to help delineate the thoughts the original statement. The game that I set-up up for myself is to figure out a way to return to the of the narrator. The text is through-composed, yet held together, nevertheless, by a recurring motive opening material no matter how far I have wandered. comprised of a perfect fifth. There is also a bit of text painting as the piece makes use of a solo flute line meant to represent the nightingales often quoted throughout the poem. The music is also George Tsontakis: Three Sighs, Three Variations imbued, at times, with Greek folk dance rhythms as well as subtle hints of Byzantine chant. Three Sighs, Three Variations was composed during a seven-month stay in Rome, where I was a student at L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia. They were meant to be musical postcards, never mailed, but imagined to be sent to friends back home. The tiny pieces, composed of short, but expressive The Performers gestures, are light in weight, but dark in color. They are truly sighs, which reflect brief pangs felt by Baritone W. Dwight Coleman, director of the School of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta, a young visitor far from the familiar surroundings of home, shortened and softened by the idyllic maintains an active performing career. He has performed with the Atlanta Opera, New Orleans Opera, breadth and gentle spirit of the host country. The last piece is a variation that combines material Teatro di Verdi in Busseto, Italy, Shreveport Opera, Mississippi Opera, North Carolina Symphony, from each of the first three “sighs,” and later became the basis for my 1984 orchestral work, Milwaukee Symphony, Bellingham Music Festival and others. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1992 Fantasia Habanera in a greatly expanded form. performing Ein Deutches Requiem by Brahms and at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fischer Hall in 1994 performing Five Mystical Songs by Vaughan Williams. Mr. Coleman has performed solo recitals in Austria, China, France, Germany, Greece and Italy. His awards include Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Chicago; Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year; Bel Canto Greek-Armenian flutist Nevart-Veron Galileas received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Foundation competition finalist; winner of the Pro Mozart Society competition and a Bel Canto Oberlin Conservatory studying with Michel Debost. She earned her Master of Music degree from Foundation grant to study in Italy with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Tebaldi. In addition to stage Indiana University-Bloomington studying with Kathryn Lukas. In 2006 she earned her Doctor of directing more than 75 original language professional operatic productions in the U.S. and abroad, Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook studying with Carol his production of The Saint of Bleecker Street won the National Opera Association’s Opera Production Wincenc. Her debut performance at the Dimitria International Festival in 1999 received excellent Competition. He received a Loridans Arts Medal in 2009 for his contributions to the arts in Atlanta. reviews emphasizing “her musicality, lyricism and tone quality.” She has performed worldwide, He has degrees from UNC Greensboro and Northwestern University. giving solo and chamber music recitals in Europe, Japan and the USA. She has given master classes at numerous international music festivals and institutions and has appeared as soloist with the Pianist Brandt Fredriksen has performed at major venues and universities throughout North Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki (Greece), America, Europe, and Asia. His debut recitals were held in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in the Brasov Symphony Orchestra (Romania), the Symphony of the Americas (Florida, USA), the New York City, Gasteig Cultural Center in Munich, Germany, and Vafopoulio Hall in Ploesti Philharmonic (Romania), the Orchestra Citta di Grosetto (Italy), the Amarillo Virtuosi Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2003, he was selected by the U.S. and China Foundation to perform recitals Chamber Orchestra (Texas, USA) and the Cadence Ensemble (Armenia) among others. Nevart and concertos throughout China, a tour that included Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Shenyang. serves as Chair of the Woodwind Department at the Neo Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Greece. An active chamber musician, Dr. Fredriksen performs regularly in Greece including the Megaron Concert Halls of Thessaloniki and Athens, and has been featured as guest artist with the New Clarinetist Kenneth Long is associate professor of clarinet and woodwind coordinator at Georgia State Hellenic String Quartet. He is a founding and performing member of Ensemble Respiro and the University. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony American Virtuosi Chamber Players. He frequently collaborates with members of the New York Brook, a Master of Music degree from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Philharmonic and the American String Quartet. His CD releases include the Complete Violin and Ohio State University. He serves as clarinetist/bass clarinetist with the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and Piano Sonatas of Johannes Brahms with violinist, Anton Miller and The Repertoire of Paul Robeson has performed with many of the Southeast’s preeminent ensembles including the Atlanta, Sarasota and with operatic bass, Kevin Maynor. He has also recorded solo piano music of Scriabin, Glinka, Ravel, Charleston Symphony Orchestras. He is a founding member/principal clarinetist of the Atlanta Chamber Satie, Chopin, and Prokofiev for the award winning documentary film Sonia, produced by Lucy Winds (heard on Albany Records), principal clarinetist of the contemporary chamber ensemble Bent Kostelanetz. Brandt Fredriksen serves as Associate Professor of Piano at Georgia State University. Frequency, and has been a guest artist on numerous occasions with the Atlanta Chamber Players.

Violinist Christos Galileas earned his Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory where he A native of Thessaloniki, Greece, saxophonist Theofilos Sotiriadis graduated from the Faculty of studied with renowned professors Roland and Almita Vamos. In 2001, he received his master’s degree at Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied classical saxophone with distinctions The Juilliard School where he studied with Dorothy Delay and Naoko Tanaka and received first prize in at the National Conservatory of Thessaloniki, the National Conservatory of Creteil in Paris and earned the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship competition of the University of Illinois. In 2005, he earned his Masters degree at Bowling Green State University in the United States. The development and diffusion a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in violin performance from the State University of New York at Stony of the “Hellenic” saxophone is the main concern of his artistic and pedagogical activity expressed through Brook. Dr. Galileas has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert venues including extensive recordings, official participation in International Music Festivals and scientific research. Vienna’s Musikverein, Prague’s Smetana Hall, Munich’s Gasteig, Kennedy Center and the Atheneum Distinguished contemporary Greek composers have dedicated some of their works to him and he has Bucharest. He has performed as a soloist with major orchestras around the world including the Berliner premiered more than 30 compositions. Sotiriadis is the creator of Macedonian Saxophone Quartet. He Symphoniker, Gustav Mahler Orchestra and the Prague Symphony among others. Dr. Galileas is String has a teaching position at the National Conservatory of Thessaloniki and the University of Macedonia. Coordinator for the Georgia State University School of Music. He plays on a 1705 Joseph Guarneri violin. Odysseia Antoniou | Demos | Tsontakis | Samaras troy1413 wa r ning: c TROY1413 o p yr igh t subsis © tel: 01539824008 box 137,kendal,cumbria la8 0xd albany recordsu.k. tel: 518.436.8814 fax:518.436.0643 915 broadway,albany,ny12207 albany recordsu.s. www.albanyrecords.com o

20 CelebrationXV(2009) 1 Allegretto 4 Lento 3 2 Lento 7 Allegroscherzando 6 Andante,impulsiverubato 5 Largo,withprofoundweight 8 t 1 s in all 3 A lba Theodore Antoniou Three Sighs,Variations(1981) George Tsontakis Theofilos Sotiriadis,altosaxophone Tonoi VII(2009) Nickitas Demos Brandt Fredriksen,piano Christos Galileas,violin Theofilos Sotiriadis,altosaxophone Nevart-Veron Galileas,flute/altoflute Brandt Fredriksen,piano Christos Galileas,violin n r y ec R or ec dings issued unde o [ [ a i e s s y d rds 1:54 2:29

[ made 0:43 ] ] i ] n t r h [

e t 8:03 [ his label 1:22 u s a ] [ 11:38 ] . [ 1:52 DDD [ 5:21 ] ] ] trans.GregoryJusdanis)(2010) (text(Helen)byGiorgosSeferis; AnEmptyBlouse 10 UltimumIII (2008) 9 Total ime=62:02 Brandt Fredriksen,piano Christos Galileas,violin Ken Long,clarinet Nevart-Veron Galileas,flute W. DwightColeman,baritone Nickitas Demos Brandt Fredriksen,piano Theofilos Sotiriadis,altosaxophone Christos Samaras [ 12:15 ] [ 15:58

]

Samaras | Tsontakis | Demos | Antoniou

troy1413 Odysseia