John Psathas

1. John Psathas NZ Composer

2. John Psathas • John Psathas is best known as the composer of the key opening music for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. It took John seven months and four trips to Greece to complete the project, which involved creating music for up to 250 musicians to record for the Olympics opening ceremony. This included compositions and arrangements for the Olympic Flag, the arrival and setting of the flame, and music for the fireworks .

3. Ioannis (John) Psathas was born in Wellington New Zealand July 3rd 1966. His father (Emmanuel Psathas, from Nea Michaniona) and mother (Anastasia Psathas, from Thessaloniki) emigrated to New Zealand in 1960 (both sides of John’s ancestors descend from Anatoliki Thrace).

4. Where did he live? • The Psathas family entered the restaurant business and John grew up in a small New Zealand town, Taumaranui. He then went to college in the city of Napier – where he developed a strong interest in music.

5. Psathas Musical style • "Many of his compositions have an energy and drive more extreme than any other music I know - it sweeps one up on a frantic roller-coaster ride and carries one to that height of exhilaration."

6. Then where to? • He left college early to study piano and composition at Victoria University of Wellington. In 1988 John’s parents and sister (Tania) returned to Greece permanently. His parents live in NeaMichaniona. After completing his Master’s degree, John studied and worked for 2 years in the USA and in Belgium. Before returning to New Zealand in 1994 where he has lectured at Victoria University’s School of Music (now the New Zealand School of Music) ever since. He recently achieved the status of Associate Professor.

7. His Music • His music is heard worldwide and is regularly performed throughout Europe, America, Australasia, and Asia. • Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society. She has played many Psathas works.

8. Evelyn Glennie-percussionist • Glennie has been profoundly deaf since age 12. • Mild: • for adults: between 25 and 40 dB • for children: between 20 and 40 dB • Moderate: between 41 and 55 dB • Moderately severe: between 56 and 70 dB • Severe: between 71 and 90 dB • Profound: 90 dB or greater • This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She regularly plays barefoot for both live performances and studio recordings, to better "feel" the music.

9. Psathas has written extensively for Evelyn Glennie, who, in her New York debut devoted nearly half her programme to his work, as he is also for acclaimed percussionists The Safri Duo. His percussion-oriented Matre's Dance and Drum Dances, are fast becoming standard repertoire.

10. His music is energetic and vibrant, with a passionate exuberance that is a product of his Greek heritage. In his music one can hear both the Western classical tradition as well as the kinetic enthusiasm found in jazz and folk music. • Greece has many instruments in common with other countries due to the closeness to those cultures.(Slavic,Albanian,Italian)

11. Middle eastern music and European music is reflected in Greek culture, so Greece has a mix of East and West. • Large family gatherings always include food and music in this culture so simple held instruments or body percussion, song and dance are common- place.

12. Omnifenix • Michael Brecker and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna 'Toscanini' premiered his saxophone concerto Omnifenix, in 2000 in Bologna at a large outdoor concert and broadcast through out Europe. Critics described this piece as a true hybrid of jazz and western art music.

13. Te Papa • Closer to home, his music opened the doors of Te Papa in 1998, and in 1997 his percussion concerto was premiered by Glennie and the NZSO.  He has written for the NZSO and the Auckland Philharmonia, pianists Michael Houstoun, Deidre Irons, David Guerin, Dan Poynton, as well as the NZ Trio, the NZ String Quartet, the Kandinsky Ensemble and Saxcess.

14. View from Olympus • The Furies • The Furies were avenging spirits of retributive justice whose task was to punish crimes outside the reach of human justice. Their names were Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone. “This movement contains an adapted transcription of a fragment of improvised playing by Greek violinist Stathis Koukoularis.”

15. II To Yelasto Paithi (The Smiling Child) • “This is the closest I’ve come to expressing, in a way not possible with the spoken or written word, the feelings inspired by my precious children, Emanuel and Zoe. In this movement is also caught the summer I spent working on the concerto at my parents’ house just outside the village of Nea Michaniona – a house perched on a cliff which looks down on the Aegean and up to Mt Olympus.”

16. III Dance of the Maenads • Draped in the skins of fawns, crowned with wreaths of ivy and carrying the thyrsos (a staff wound round with ivy leaves and topped with a pine cone), the Maenads roamed the mountains and woods, seeking to assimilate the potency of the beasts that dwelled there and celebrating their god Dionysos with song, music and dance.

17. Part III continued.. • The human spirit demands Dionysiac ecstasy; to those who accept it, the experience offers spiritual power. For those who repress the natural force within themselves or refuse it to others, it is transformed into destruction, both of the innocent and the guilty. When possessed by Dionysos, the Maenads became savage and brutal. They plunged into a frenzied dance, obtaining an intoxicating high and a mystical ecstasy that gave them unknown powers, making them the match of the bravest hero.

18. Reference • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Psathas • Accessed 9th March 2011