One of the best composers in the world
Achievements

One of the best composers in the world

Christos Hatzis is a professor of composition at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, the recipient of several national and international distinctions such as the Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award, the Prix Italia Special Prize, the Prix Bohemia Radio, the Jules Léger Prize for chamber music and the New Pioneer Award as well as four Juno Award nominations (2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008) in addition to his 2008 and 2006 Juno Awards in the “Classical Composition of the Year” category.

Born in Volos, Greece, he now leaves permanently in Toronto, Canada.

He received his early music instruction at the Volos branch of the Hellenic Conservatory. He continued his musical studies in the United States, first at the Eastman School of Music and later at the State University of New York. He immigrated to Canada in 1982 and became a Canadian citizen in 1985. Hailed as «one of the most important composers in Canada» (International Musician), he is now an internationally renowned composer, being the recipient of prestigious awards.

His work Constantinople was critically acclaimed and has been performed internationally. It combined music and visual media and is musically eclectic, featuring jazz, classical, and eastern elements.

Hatzis” music is inspired by early Christian spirituality, his own Byzantine music heritage, world cultures and various non-classical music genres such as jazz, pop and world musics. He is an advocate of borderless culture and many of his most recent works bridge the gap between classical music and today’s popular music idioms, His compositions are structurally complex while sonically accessible. He has created several works inspired by the music of the Inuit, Canada’s arctic inhabitants, and his Inuit-inspired works, particularly the award winning radio documentary Footprints in New Snow, have promoted Inuit culture around the globe. His strongest inspiration is his own religious faith, and his religious works have been hailed by critics and audiences alike as contemporary masterpieces. In addition to composing and teaching, Hatzis has written extensively about composition and contemporary music.

In the past few seasons, Hatzis’ compositions have been receiving international exposure through performances by touring ensembles committed to Hatzis” music, such as the Gryphon Trio, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Pilobolus Dance Theater, the English Chamber Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers, and soloists such as sopranos Judith Forst, Patricia Rozario, Isabel Bayrakdarian, and Patricia O’ Callaghan, Arabic vocalist Maryem Tollar, violist Steven Dann, French horn player Jamie Sommerville, flutist Patrick Gallois, cellist Shauna Rolston, percussionists Evelyn Glennie (UK), Beverley Johnston and NEXUS (Canada) and Gordon Stout (USA), to mention but a few. Premieres of his music from 2003 to 08 include venues such as The Royal Opera House at Convent Garden, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Barbican Center and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, UK, The Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Lively Arts Center in Palo Alto, CA, the Megaron in Athens, Greece, The Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, The Winspear Centre in Edmonton and the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto and important festivals like the High Lights Festival in Montreal and the Luminato Festival in Toronto.

It is not unusual for a Hatzis work to become a signature piece for a soloist or an ensemble. His Old Photographs and Dance of the Dictators have been performed by the Gryphon Trio all over the world hundreds of times. In 2007 alone, Hatzis was he composer-in-residence with three Canadian music festivals (Winnipeg New Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Festival of the Sound). The Camerata Orchestra of Athens under the direction of Alexander Myrat performs a Hatzis work in each season during the past few years, while the 2004 Byzantine Festival in London built its theme around Hatzis” The Troparion of Kassiani. His recent large-scale work Sepulcher of Life, for soloists, choir and orchestra was commissioned by four different Canadian philharmonic choirs and already has had nine performances across North America by nine different presenters, including a remarkable performance at the Temple of Dendur, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in May 2004 with an additional one in Finland in 2008. Hatzis” music is increasingly combined with visual media: His most important multimedia music theatre piece, Constantinople, performed at sold-out halls at Banff and Toronto during the summer and fall of 2004 and was described by the Toronto Star as “A multimedia feast of the imagination…a work unlike any other in the Canadian musical literature …Constantinople defies categories…it is in a class of its own” and by the Calgary Herald as “a stunning theatrical triumph”. In June 2005 Constantinople opened the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Heaven, Connecticut, and in 2007 it had several prestigious international performances including five completely sold-out shows at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden followed by sold-out performances in Calgary and Whitehorse in 2008. The CD of the show won the Juno Award in 2008.

COMMENTS

  Comments: 1

  1. Ντίνα Τουλάκη

    Άκουσα τήν συνέντευξη καί κάποιες από τίς μουσικές συνθέσεις τού κ. Χρήστου Χατζή στό 3ο Πρόγραμμα τής ΕΡΤ καί πρέπει νά πώ ότι εντυπωσιάστηκα, συγκινήθηκα καί πρό πάντων ευχαριστήθηκα που ένας ακόμη Βολιώτης καί Έλληνας έχει κάνει τεράστια καριέρα στό εξωτερικό καί μάλιστα μέ τόσο ευαίσθητα θέματα, όπως τά προβλήματα τών αυτοχθόνων τής Βορείου Αμερικής! Τά θερμά μου συγχαρητήρια καί τίς ευχές μου γιά υγεία, έμπνευση, ευαισθησία καί πρωτιές!!!


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