John Psathas
Professor - Composition
MMus Victoria
 John Psathas, as well as being one of a few New Zealand composers who have made a mark on the international scene, is now also widely considered one of the three most important living composers of the Greek Diaspora. Raised in Taumaranui and Napier, John is the son of Greek immigrant parents who arrived in New Zealand in the early 1960s. After studying piano and composition at Victoria University, he studied privately in Belgium with Jaqueline Fontyn before returning to take up lecturing at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington.
John’s music has been commissioned and performed by many great musicians and orchestras around the world. These include Michael Brecker, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Michael Houstoun, Joshua Redman, The New Zealand String Quartet, Federico Mondelci, The New Zealand Trio, Pedro Carneiro, the Takacs Quartet, The Netherlands Blazers Ensemble, the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the NZSO, and many others.
It was the performance in 2000 of the Saxophone Concerto written for Michael Brecker (in Bologna, Italy), which first drew Psathas’ name to international attention. The concerto wowed the 8000-strong audience and paved the way for further international performances of Psathas’ larger concert works. Notable amongst these was the programming of the Percussion Concerto (for four soloists and orchestra) at the 2001 ‘Klangspuren’ Festival in Schwaz, Austria.
In 2002 View from Olympus was given its premiere at a Royal Gala Concert during the Manchester Commonwealth
Games by Evelyn Glennie and Philip Smith with the Hall é Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder. To date, however, the principal highlight of his career is the exposure Psathas received as the composer of the key ceremonial music for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
In 2006 the largest ever orchestral recording project in New Zealand was launched. View from Olympus consists of a CD/DVD package of three of John Psathas’ concertos: View from Olympus, Omnifenix and Three Psalms.
John has a natural inclination and innate ability for mega-projects. Since writing much of the ceremonial music for the Athens Games, John’s music has been on the radar screen of a wider public than that normally associated with contemporary classical music.
To him, music composition is first and foremost a communicative art form. He is constantly seeking ways and means of making intellectual music accessible to a wider audience. He explores connections between contemporary music and age-old musical traditions, and puts together programmes, such as his Zeibekiko, that create a context for the appreciation of difficult contemporary works. More recently John has embarked on crossover projects with New Zealand’s Little Bushman, and System of Down’s Serj Tankian.
In 2010, John’s A Cool Wind will receive its Carnegie Hall debut with the Takács Quartet, and he will be the Distinguished Guest Composer at the Winnipeg’s 2010 New Music Festival.
Contact details
Room: 102, 92 Fairlie Tce, Kelburn Campus
Phone: +64 4 463-5862
Email: john.psathas@nzsm.ac.nz
External links
Feedback | © 2007 NZSM |
Last Updated:
December 7, 2007
|
