Menelaos Peistikos is a Greek composer and pianist currently based in Toronto, Canada. His music is inspired by an extreme variety of musical genres, ranging from baroque and renaissance music to contemporary classical and cinematic music, as well as from folk Greek to Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music. Peistikos is also heavily influenced by other artistic disciplines, especially by the oeuvres of Plato, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Watts, and Edward Hopper.
For Sun's Light: Molinari Quartet
In February 2019, Menelaos won the 3rd Prize and 1st Prize of Public at the 7th Molinari String Quartet Composition Competition in Montreal, Canada, for his string-quartet composition For Sun’s light. In December 2018, he won the 2nd Prize at the 4th Opus Dissonus International Composition Competition for solo piano in Brazil for his composition On the Vision and The Riddle.
On the Vision and the Riddle
He is a current student at the University of Toronto, pursuing his Master’s in Composition under the supervision of his new mentor, composer Christos Hatzis. Before continuing his studies with Professor Hatzis, Menelaos studied composition for 7 years with Professor Altin Volaj, who he considers a mentor and a significant influence on his artistic career so far.
I am currently taking place in a commission led by Jade Hails in which Menelaos will be composing a work for solo vibraphone with the intent to create a masterwork on par with that of the great solo marimba literature. Virtuosic elements will be prominent with influences from multiple competing genres, among them gamelan music. A taste of Menelaos' percussion writing in a Gamelan style can be heard in his mallet quartet "Gamelon Tango".
Gamelan Tango: University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble
I enjoyed reading your blog, and it's very good to know about Menelaos' background as a composer. I loved listening to Gamelan Tango. In fact, I love to listen to Javanese gamelan music or gamelan-inspired classical/post-tonal works. I would love to listen to your performance of Menelaus' works someday.
Hi Zack! It is so cool that you are taking part in a comission where Menelaos is composing a work for solo vibraphone for the purpose of creating a contemporary masterwork. That seems like such a unique experience full of growth as a performer and person! I find it so intriguing that his music is inspired by such a wide range of genres (baroque, contemporary classical, cinematic music, folk Greek, Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music). I wonder what brought him to all of these genres and how they might be implemented into the piece you are involved with! -Abby Ryan
It was really cool to listen to each of these different recordings. I always find it interesting to see what types of ensembles composers choose to write for. Especially hearing that he is doing percussion works - I always figure composers would be more interested in writing for an instrument they played. - Laura Ruple
Zack, thanks for your comments about Menelaos Peistikos. He definitely works in a wide variety of genres and influences! It seems like he writes for a large range of instrumentations. What a cool experience to be involved in his new piece for vibraphone! -Hyrum Arnesen
Hi Zack! I enjoyed your blog and music. It was really impressive that even if he is a Greek composer, he used a lot of the folk music from Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music. Basically, these folk music have not been familiar than Western music. So, I could feel how much his composed music needed to be studied for understanding these folk music. -Haksung Lee
Thank you for introducing Menelaos Peistikos to us! I like his music taste and I think it's very unusual that he's got so many influences from different countries that are pretty far from Greece and have totally different cultures. I really loved his string quartet. Actually, it reminded me a bit quartets by Ravel (2nd mov) and by Janacek!
Hi, Zack. This was really interesting to read! Peistikos seems to draw on many different influences in his writing, which is impressive! I especially liked "On the Vision and the Riddle." It reminds me of some of Bartok's piano works. I hope the commission you are working on goes well! That's very exciting! Thanks for sharing! -- Noah Ward
Interesting to read about a composer who draws inspiration from so many different styles/sources. I really liked Gamelan Tango, I love the different sounds and colors he gets in that piece. Seems like he really knows how to write for percussion instruments (I'd assume he knows the gamelan style well, too, though I don't know it well enough to make that call!) - Cameron DeLuca
Valerie Coleman is a Grammy-nominated composer and flutist. She was a founding member of the Imani Winds wind quintet and is a current performer with the harp-viola-flute trio Umama Womama. She is also currently the Clara Mannes Fellow for Music Leadership at the Mannes School of Music, serving on the flute and composition faculty. Coleman has appeared with many orchestras, chamber groups, and on many records throughout her career. She is also an accomplished composer and arranger. In 2019 and 2020, the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned her to arrange Umoja and write “Seven O’Clock Shout,” respectively. Her piece Umoja has taken many forms, including wind quintet, concert band, and flute choir. The word umoja is the Swahili word for “unity” and is the word associated with the first day of Kwanzaa. The piece contains a call and response theme that represents unity in the music. Seven O’Clock Shout was
We Shall Not Be Moved was composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain with a libretto by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and directed by Bill T. Jones. The opera brings in musical signifiers from several genres while pointedly critiquing issues such as police brutality, the rights of transgender individuals, and structural racism within the US public education system. While the opera has not been taken on by another company since its premiere in 2017, it is an overlooked example of the possibilities illuminated by the frameworks and orientations of Black Opera as defined by Naomi André , and, I would argue, contemporary US opera more broadly. The opera grew out of an Opera Philadelphia collaboration with a non-profit called Arts Sanctuary called "Hip H'Opera," initially launched in 2007. In the Hip H'Opera program, students "[learned] the history and aesthetics of hip-hop and opera . . . and then "[used] poetry, fiction, and non-fiction [to capture] their own urban stories.
Hi Zack,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog, and it's very good to know about Menelaos' background as a composer. I loved listening to Gamelan Tango. In fact, I love to listen to Javanese gamelan music or gamelan-inspired classical/post-tonal works. I would love to listen to your performance of Menelaus' works someday.
-Lydia Lee
Hi Zack! It is so cool that you are taking part in a comission where Menelaos is composing a work for solo vibraphone for the purpose of creating a contemporary masterwork. That seems like such a unique experience full of growth as a performer and person! I find it so intriguing that his music is inspired by such a wide range of genres (baroque, contemporary classical, cinematic music, folk Greek, Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music). I wonder what brought him to all of these genres and how they might be implemented into the piece you are involved with! -Abby Ryan
ReplyDeleteIt was really cool to listen to each of these different recordings. I always find it interesting to see what types of ensembles composers choose to write for. Especially hearing that he is doing percussion works - I always figure composers would be more interested in writing for an instrument they played.
ReplyDelete- Laura Ruple
Zack, thanks for your comments about Menelaos Peistikos. He definitely works in a wide variety of genres and influences! It seems like he writes for a large range of instrumentations. What a cool experience to be involved in his new piece for vibraphone!
ReplyDelete-Hyrum Arnesen
Hi Zack! I enjoyed your blog and music. It was really impressive that even if he is a Greek composer, he used a lot of the folk music from Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music. Basically, these folk music have not been familiar than Western music. So, I could feel how much his composed music needed to be studied for understanding these folk music.
ReplyDelete-Haksung Lee
Thank you for introducing Menelaos Peistikos to us!
ReplyDeleteI like his music taste and I think it's very unusual that he's got so many influences from different countries that are pretty far from Greece and have totally different cultures. I really loved his string quartet. Actually, it reminded me a bit quartets by Ravel (2nd mov) and by Janacek!
-Diana
Hi, Zack. This was really interesting to read! Peistikos seems to draw on many different influences in his writing, which is impressive! I especially liked "On the Vision and the Riddle." It reminds me of some of Bartok's piano works. I hope the commission you are working on goes well! That's very exciting! Thanks for sharing! -- Noah Ward
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read about a composer who draws inspiration from so many different styles/sources. I really liked Gamelan Tango, I love the different sounds and colors he gets in that piece. Seems like he really knows how to write for percussion instruments (I'd assume he knows the gamelan style well, too, though I don't know it well enough to make that call!)
ReplyDelete- Cameron DeLuca