Today we’d like to introduce you to Apostolos Paraskevas.
Apostolos, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
‘I did not come from a musical family at all. I grew up in Volos, a town north of Athens, and discovered the guitar during my early teens, I did not have any prior musical experience when friends of mine asked me to join a band. I told them I could play bass rather than guitar because the bass was less than four strings so how difficult could that be? The truth is, I did not have a bass at all but a very bad 6-string Bulgarian guitar, which I still have, in Greece. This had been the defining moment for me. That was it. I was a complete convert and started playing in Greek rock bands where the lyrics were entirely in Greek text and filled with lots of drama.’
After I received a Teaching Diploma from the Philharmonia Conservatory in Volos and an Artist Diploma in guitar performance from the Modern Conservatory in Salonica, Greece, I continued composition studies in the United States at Boston University, originally intending to do so for only a year. That was 26 years ago ‘I never went back. I was in graduate school for my Master’s degree, then my doctorate then my post-doctorate and now I am teaching at Berklee. Boston University is where I had met Lukas Foss. First I became his student, then I became his assistant in his classes while I was a doctoral student. We collaborated together many times and in different combinations including multiple concerts at Carnegie Hal in New York: We conducted together. I played his music. He conducted my music. We did concertos together of other composer’s music.
I am a classical guitarist and composer as occasionally a film director and producer. I have received multiple international awards for my compositions and I was nominated for a Grammy Award. I was mentioned as the only guitarist ever to have a major orchestral piece performed at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Lukas Foss––and the only musician who has performed there in a Grim Reaper outfit. I have made over a dozen recordings of my music and my orchestral music has been performed around the world by numerous symphony orchestras including Albany, Boston Landmarks, Boston University, Newton, National Festival, Atlantic, Odessa (Ukraine), Hamptons Symphony, National Greek, Cyprus, Florida International University, Thessaloniki Municipal Symphony orchestras. I was the founder and served for 16 years as the artistic director of the International Guitar Congress-Festival of Corfu, Greece.
I embarked on a career as a guitar soloist and contemporary composer, achieving distinctions in both disciplines: Grammy nomination for Chase Dance (Bridge Records, 1999); first prize for Night Wanderings (Lukas Foss Composition Competition, 2000); first prize for Phygein Adynaton (National Composers Conference, 1997); and numerous prestigious commissions, performances, and publications. Following teaching posts at Northeastern and Boston Universities, I taught since 2001 at the Berklee College of Music in Boston (professor of composition and classical guitar). Although I was struck by focal hand dystonia in 2009, I recovered in 2013 after reconstructing my playing technique.
Groves Dictionary of Music describes my music as “His eclectic compositional style arises as an idiosyncratic integration of seemingly conflicting influences – from avant-garde approaches to harmonic structure, form, and timbre, to pop-folk modal and rhythmical concepts – amalgamated into a personal evocative musical language, characterized by rhythmic verve, melodic grace, dramatic (and sometimes unexpectedly humorous) gestures, and ritualistic or theatrical elements. The latter feature has also led Paraskevas to the creation of films, notably the acclaimed I Finally Did It (Gold award, California Film Awards 2010), dealing wittily with Death, a recurring extra-musical theme in his music’.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In 2009 I was struck almost overnight by focal dystonia (FD) to my right hand after a concert. I lost the ability to use my right hand as a guitarist. I invested close to 7,000 hours in successful self-rehabilitation over a period of four years and am back to performing. My rehabilitation was based on reducing tension in my hand and retraining my brain through proper, relaxed hand movements, practiced extensively.
During a life in music I had challenges. When I performed ‘The Life of Death’ concerts in Lichtenstein, I received two interesting responses which had been essentially two opposing reviews. One said that it had been the best concert and another proclaimed it to be the worst. Either way, I see it had clearly been memorable. I always tell my students we are imperfect beings. Do not pass like an ordinary person but do something that leaves an impression.’
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Composer-Guitarist-Filmmaker story. Tell us more about the business.
I want to believe that I am an art creator:
I written and performed music and even made films. Once I even performed at Carnegie Hall dressed as the Grim Reaper for my fourth guitar concerto The Life of Death, and that was a few months after the events September 11. I am not inspired by Death in the sense of creating something gruesome or even commercialize it. To me Death also has an innocent and sympathetic influence to my writings and creations. I am always trying to re consolidate his image I could say via my music or films or performances.
Since the late 80s I have been performing modern music with any means of other supportive art. Lighting show, actors, dancers, theater and even film. Lately I have been trying to create a short movie for every work I have ever composed. It’s a great challenge, but it will be extremely rewarding as well during live performances as well. Another approach is multimedia presentations as I mentioned before. Image and story is quite a creativity force for me. Started doing concerts dressed as the Grim Reaper even at Carnegie Hall in New York city few months after the 9/11 attacks and recently include a whole film approach in my live performance compositions. I find it a way of stimulating the audience and keep it glued in their seats ‘what he/ they will do next? I hear many times. Gustav Mahler said few years ago that ‘all music is programmatic’ and I couldn’t agree more. It’s up to us the ‘creators’, please excuse my pompous word but yes it’s up to us to leave our comfort zone and make a difference. ‘Your audiences will thank you, your composers will thank you, your performers will thank you and I will thank you’.
Contact Info:
- Email: appar@bu.edu
- Website: www.apostolosparaskevas.com
Image Credit:
Mathew Tucciarone and Laura Villafranca
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