Giorgos Koumendakis

‘Mediterranean Desert’ for pf or hpd:

Giorgos Koumendakis (Greek: Γιώργος Κουμεντάκης) is a prolific Greek composer, among the most important of his country. He was appointed musical director and creator of musical scenario for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

G. Koumendakis was appointed general secretary of the Hellenic Union of Contemporary Music. From 1999-2001 he was artistic director of the ‘Nikos Skalkottas Ensemble’. Actually he is artistic director of the ‘Cyclus Ensemble’ since 2013. He was member of several committees about composition and performance competitions (Competition of composition and music direction ‘Dimitris Mitropoulos’, Synthermeia, Competition for guitar soloists-Patras’ Municipal Conservatory). He has participated in music conferences and given lectures on music (‘Music Village’, Houdetsi) and has supported young Greek composers during the Workshops of the Greek Composer's Union. He has collaborated on seven occasions with the dance group Omada Edafous of Dimitris Papaioannou. He is a member of OPEP's (Organisation of promotion of the Greek Culture) board of directors. The Onassis Cultural Center, the Athens’ and Thessaloniki's Music Halls have presented hommage on Koumendakis’ music. From 2012 Koumendakis is composer in residence at the National Opera.

In 1990 he was awarded the second prize of the Municipality of Athens for a music work concerning the National Rebirth and in 1992 Koumendakis was awarded the “Prix de Rome” and was ‘pensionnaire’ for 1993 in Villa Mediciis in Rome. In 1994 he was awarded the “Nikos Kazantzakis Prize” from the Municipality of Herakleion From 1998 to 2000 he was “Composer in Residence” in London for the Hellenic Concert series, Clio Gould and BT Ensemble, receiving support by the Michaels Marks Charitable Trust. He undertook the musical direction and created the music concept for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Koumendakis has composed more than 100 works including vocal-choral, orchestral, chamber, solo, operatic music, as well as music for dance, modern theater and ancient Greek drama. He has also collaborated with other artists in various multi-and new media projects (video-art, animation, installations). His compositions reveal influences from different music styles and currents, historical and contemporary, not only from the milieu of the savant music literature but also from the folkloric music of his country. His compositions have been performed in many international festivals, conferences: World Music Days Festival(Germany 1987, Hong Kong 1988, Oslo 1990), Frankfurt Feste (1987), Conferenza Musicale Mediterranea (Palermo, 1992, 1997), Nieuwe Muziek Middelburg Festival (1990), Presences-Radio France (Paris, 1992, 2004), Festival of Athens(2005, 2006, 2009, 2010), Cultural Year of Greece in China (Beijing 2007-8) etc.

Giorgos Koumendakis was born in Rethymnon (Crete) in 1959 to Ioannis and Evaggelia Koumendakis. He took the first music lessons (accordion) in Rethymno and began to compose at the age of 15. He pursued his studies in Advanced Theory with Diamantis Diamantopoulos at the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens and has attainted seminars of music composition with P. Boulez, Ligeti György, I. Xenakis, A. Goehr and others in Paris.