Theodora Panagopoulou
Composer
Theodora Panagopoulou is a composer who has written for a wide range of different ensembles and solo performers, and whose music has been performed in concerts and festivals in Greece, Germany and the UK.
Within Greece she has twice had her music programmed in the workshops and seminars of the Greek Composers Union – in 2004 her work ‘Diadromi’ took first prize in the Workshops for New Composers held in Patras, Greece, and in 2005 her work ‘Arotho’ was selected for the annual Athens Megaron new music workshops under the direction of Theodore Antoniou. Other notable performances within Greece include the performance of children’s songs by the Orchestra of Colours (as part of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Cultural Festival), work with the Camerata Orchestra (recorded for a CD of contemporary music under the auspices of the Greek National Radio ERT-3), performances by the baroque recorder and bayan ensemble Duo Goliardi in Athens and Munich, the harpsichord soloist Katerina Michopoulou in Corfu, Athens and Germany, and a commission for the CD of music setting the poetry of Palamas recently commercially released by the University of Athens.
In 2006 Theodora took part as a composer and performer with her work ‘Sminos’ in ‘The Storytelling Project’, commissioned and funded by the ‘European Capital of Culture: Patras 2006’ festival. She then took part in the Living Composers Project in London in 2007 with a new work for piano. In the last two years she has begun to work with electronic resources, both electroacoustic sounds and live electronics for real-time performance. Work in this field includes regular performances of a joint composition with Tim Ward and Sofia Kamayianni (‘Around and About the Soundscape’), which has been presented on numerous occasions in Patras, Athens and as part of the ElectroMedia Works festival (Athens, 2008).
Theodora Panagopoulou initially studied music within the conservatory system of Greece, completing the highest diplomas in piano and theory at Phillipos Nakas Conservatory, Athens. She went on to study music for theatre and film with Dimitris Papadimitriou, as well as composition with Josef Papadatos, receiving her diploma in composition at the same conservatory. She also followed up a long standing interest in byzantine music with lessons and a diploma with the renowned psaltist Lycourgos Angelopoulos, with whom she then worked in performances of byzantine realisations by the Greek contemporary composer Michalis Adamis together with the Greek Byzantine Choir (performances in Greece, Denmark and the USA). In parallel to these activities she was enrolled in the Theology School of The University of Athens (graduating in 1994 with a BA), before choosing to continue her musical studies in the UK at The University of York, where she studied composition with David Blake (graduating in 1998 with an MA).
From 2003 to 2007 Theodora Panagopoulou was commissioned together with Sofia Kamayianni to write, produce and present the program ‘Twenty First Century: Trends and Experimentations’ for Greek National Radio (ERT Radio 3) – a weekly program exploring and discussing the newest of contemporary music. Other similar activities include a series of journalistic articles on contemporary music published in the Sunday magazine of Greece’s leading broadsheet newspaper ‘Kathimerini’ and regular commissions to write the analytical program notes for concerts of new music at the Athens Megaron concert hall.
Δώρα Παναγοπούλου
συνθέτρια-μουσικός-εκπαιδευτικός
H Δώρα Παναγοπούλου είναι συνθέτρια κυρίως ακουστικής μουσικής. Έχει γράψει έργα για μικρά ή μεγαλύτερα σύνολα, σολιστικά έργα και τραγούδια που έχουν παρουσιαστεί στην Ελλάδα, την Ευρώπη και τις ΗΠΑ. Tα τελευταία χρόνια ασχολείται όλο και περισσότερο με τη δημιουργία μουσικής μέσω υπολογιστών.
Ιδρυτικό μέλος της ΣΠΙΖΑ, έχει συνεργαστεί πολλές φορές με τον Τιμ Γουόρντ και τη Σοφία Καμαγιάννη, σε ομαδικές δουλειές όπως το Lovely Echoes (Αθήνα, 2012), 3×3 (Αθήνα – ΗΠΑ, 2009) Γύρω και πέρα από τα ηχοτοπία (Αθήνα – Πάτρα, 2007), Storytelling Project (Πάτρα, 2004) κ.α. Παλαιότερα είχε συνεργαστεί με την Oρχήστρα των Xρωμάτων σε διαγωνισμό παιδικού τραγουδιού (Πολιτιστική Oλυμπιάδα 2004), την Kαμεράτα (ηχογραφήσεις νέων έργων στο Tρίτο Πρόγραμμα), το Duo Goliardi και έχει συμμετάσχει στο CD – αφιέρωμα στον K. Παλαμά του Πανεπιστημίου Aθηνών.
Παράληλα με τη σύνθεση διδάσκει στο Αμερικανικό Κολλέγιο Ελλάδος (Pierce College), ενώ ασχολείται και με την βυζαντινή μουσική και τη μουσική αρθογραφία. Tην περίοδο 2003-2007 παρουσίαζε στο Tρίτο Πρόγραμμα, μαζί με τη Σοφία Kαμαγιάννη την εκπομπή 21ος: Tάσεις και Πειραματισμοί.