
Sofia Avramidou
Greek composer and singer born 18 January 1988 in Thessaloniki.
Sofia Avramidou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1988. She studied piano, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue at the Thessaloniki Conservatory before entering the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she studied between 2010 and 2014 under Christos Samaras, receiving a bachelors and a masters degree in composition with highest honors. She went on to study composition with Ivan Fedele in a specialized masters program at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, from which she graduated summa cum laude.
In 2017, she studied electroacoustic composition with Jean-Luc Hervé and Yan Maresz at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory.
In 2019-2020, she participated in Cursus (IRCAM’s composition and computer music course). Her final piece, Keep digging the hare hole for cello and electronics, was performed in the main auditorium of the Georges Pompidou Center for the online edition of the Festival ManiFeste.
Sofia Avramidou has won numerous awards, including the Prix Goffredo Petrassi, first prize in the 9th Francisco Escudero International Accordion Composition Competition for VoCx, as well as first prize in the 6th Dimitris Dragatakis Composition Competition for Skin, awarded by the Greek Composers Union. She was also awarded a merit scholarship from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation.
Throughout her career, Avramidou has participated in numerous composition masterclasses and workshops with composers including Beat Furrer, Philipe Manoury, Georges Aperghis, Francesco Filidei, and Dmitri Kourlandski.
She has received commissions from and invitations to collaborate with many celebrated ensembles, including Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Multilatérale, Eva Reiter and Ensemble Ictus, Ensemble Ex Novo, and Ensemble Oktopus. In 2018, she was selected by the Venice Biennale to compose a chamber opera to be performed at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.
Avramidou’s work is anchored in the tradition of spectral music. Her compositions focus on timbre, formal evolution, and flux, as well as on developing dramatic narrative through contrast. She approaches sound as a sensitive medium and seeks out new textures and tones.
Sofia Avramidou is also a singer. She has collaborated with numerous ensembles and artists such as Elias Liougos, Dulce Pontes, George Stavrianos, Orpheus Peridis, Manolis Rasoulis, Milva, the Thessaloniki City Symphony Orchestra, and the Plucked String Orchestra of the Municipality of Patras, among others.
She also composes film scores; notably, that of Obscuro Barroco, directed by Evangelia Kranioti, which won the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2018.
Since May 2021, her work has been published by BabelScores.
Awards and Honors
- Prix Goffredo Petrassi, 2018
- Honorable Mention, Pre-Art 11th Competition, 2018
- Ambassador Artist Prize, Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, 2017
- 1st Prize, Francisco Escudero International Accordion Composition Competition, 2016
- 1st Prize, Dimitris Dragatakis Composition Competition, 2014
© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2021
Sources
Sofia Avramidou ; Mikhail Malt ; BabelScores.
- Solo (excluding voice)
- Alternanze for vibraphone (2013), BabelScores
- Chronophobia for cello (2014)
- Odes - A Story of a Crime for solo harp (2014), between 6 mn and 10 mn about , BabelScores
- Scène Sixième for solo flute (2014), 7 mn about , BabelScores
- Scene VI for flute (2014, 2014)
- When the Wolf met Peter for bass clarinet (2015)
- stage La Légende de Saint-Martin musical theater for cello (2017, 2017), 6 mn 26 s, BabelScores
- Tilen Canti for electric guitar (2019)
- elec ircam Ircam cursus Keep digging the hare hole for cello and electronics (2020), 7 mn, BabelScores [program note]
- Chamber music
- Apprivoisant les vagues for small ensemble (2011), 14 mn about , BabelScores
- Quartet I for string quartet (2012), 9 mn about , BabelScores
- Sisyphus for accordion and double bass (2014)
- Skin for string quartet (2014)
- Stimmt for clarinet, cello and piano (2014)
- Aatos for bayan and clarinet (2016, 2016, 2016, 2016)
- Don’t Even Think About Knocking for string quintet (2016), BabelScores
- VoCx for bayan and clarinet (2016, 2016), 6 mn, BabelScores
- An Absurd Reasoning for violin, cello and piano (2017), between 60 s and 5 mn about , BabelScores
- Occulto Vocale for six instruments (2020)
- Ithaca for chamber orchestra (2021)
- Instrumental ensemble music
- Avaton for eight instruments (2013)
- REM (Rapid Eye Movement) for large group (2015), BabelScores
- Chronofonia for twelve instruments (2016), 8 mn about , BabelScores
- Three Greek Dances for string orchestra (2016)
- Metallages for set (2020), BabelScores
- elec Géranomachie for large assemblies and electronics (2021)
- Vocal music and instrument(s)
- The Blue (H)our for soprano, flute, clarinet and cello (2015)
- Water Mask for chamber orchestra and children's choir (2016)
- ’Masques tou Nerou’ for chamber orchestra and children's choir (2016)
- stage Rodi, rodi! Morsicchia! La casina chi rosicchia? chamber opera (2018), BabelScores
- Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
- elec Sorkerino acousmatic piece (2018)
- elec Città Dolente - Il Canto Terzo acousmatic piece (2019)
- elec The Last Water Cycle acousmatic piece (2019)
- Unspecified instrumentation
- Obscuro Barroco music for the documentary-fiction Obscuro Barroco by director Evangelia Kranioti (2018), 60 mn
- La Cave aux Rêves installation (2021)
- 2021
- elec Géranomachie for large assemblies and electronics
- Ithaca for chamber orchestra
- La Cave aux Rêves installation
- 2020
- elec ircam Ircam cursus Keep digging the hare hole for cello and electronics, 7 mn, BabelScores [program note]
- Metallages for set, BabelScores
- Occulto Vocale for six instruments
- 2019
- elec Città Dolente - Il Canto Terzo acousmatic piece
- elec The Last Water Cycle acousmatic piece
- Tilen Canti for electric guitar
- 2018
- Obscuro Barroco music for the documentary-fiction Obscuro Barroco by director Evangelia Kranioti, 60 mn
- stage Rodi, rodi! Morsicchia! La casina chi rosicchia? chamber opera, BabelScores
- elec Sorkerino acousmatic piece
- 2017
- An Absurd Reasoning for violin, cello and piano, between 60 s and 5 mn about , BabelScores
- stage La Légende de Saint-Martin musical theater for cello, 6 mn 26 s, BabelScores
- 2016
- Aatos for bayan and clarinet
- Chronofonia for twelve instruments, 8 mn about , BabelScores
- Don’t Even Think About Knocking for string quintet, BabelScores
- Three Greek Dances for string orchestra
- VoCx for bayan and clarinet, 6 mn, BabelScores
- Water Mask for chamber orchestra and children's choir
- ’Masques tou Nerou’ for chamber orchestra and children's choir
- 2015
- REM (Rapid Eye Movement) for large group, BabelScores
- The Blue (H)our for soprano, flute, clarinet and cello
- When the Wolf met Peter for bass clarinet
- 2014
- Chronophobia for cello
- Odes - A Story of a Crime for solo harp, between 6 mn and 10 mn about , BabelScores
- Scene VI for flute
- Scène Sixième for solo flute, 7 mn about , BabelScores
- Sisyphus for accordion and double bass
- Skin for string quartet
- Stimmt for clarinet, cello and piano
- 2013
- Alternanze for vibraphone, BabelScores
- Avaton for eight instruments
- 2012
- Quartet I for string quartet, 9 mn about , BabelScores
- 2011
- Apprivoisant les vagues for small ensemble, 14 mn about , BabelScores
Liens internet
- Page Soundcloud de la compositrice : https://soundcloud.com/sofia-avramidou-3
- Site de BabelScores : https://www.babelscores.com/fr/composer?userid=9144
- « Paroles d’artistes », entretien vidéo du 26 août 2020 avec Sofia Avramidou mené par Jean-Philippe Wurtz à l’occasion de l’Académie Voix Nouvelles de la Fondation Royaumont : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psp5z9mzthY&ab_channel=Royaumont
(liens vérifiés en mai 2021).
Discographie
- Sofia AVRAMIDOU, « Binôme », 1 Cd Outlandish Recordings, 2019, OUT007.
- Sofia AVRAMIDOU, VoCx, Maria Zubimendi de la Hoz, accordéon ; Laura Garcia Itarte, clarinette, sur « Hauspoz. Accordion Contemporary », avec des œuvres de Carlos Duque, Aurelio Edler-Copes, Mikel Urquiza, Wen Liu, Fabian Santcovsky, Stefano Bonilauri, Francisco José Dominguez, Stephan Stork, 1 Cd Ibs Classical, 2017, IBS172017.
Bibliographie
- Sofia AVRAMIDOU, « L’influence du texte est diffuse », entretien avec Laure GAUTHIER, à paraître dans « Un autre lyrisme au XXIè siècle », Laure GAUTHIER (dir.), à paraître aux Éditions MF en 2022.