CHRISTINA ATHINODOROU

The work of the composer and conductor

Christina Athinodorou

(b. Paphos, Cyprus 1981)

has been described as “rich”, “intensively interpreted”,“engaging” by international press.

Her compositions have been presented in various classical and contemporary music festivals, concert series and venues, including:  MITO Settembre Musica Festival 2008, Italia Classic-Wave Florence 2007, Festival Spaziomusica Cagliari 2008, Musica Nuova per Natale 2006, Teatro dal Verme Milano,  Spazio MIL (Italy), Festival Forfest 2006 (Czech Republic), Young Rising Artists’ Series 2008 (Cyprus) Labyrinthmaker Project (tour in twelve countries), Viitasaari Musiikin Aika Festival 2008, New Music Festival PeriFÈRIA 2009 (Finland), St Giles’ Cripplegate, Henry Wood Hall, The Warehouse London, Dartington Hall, EKON Festival, Reading Concert Hall, Hellenic Centre,  Lauderdale House, Notting Hill MayfFest 2009, British Music Information Centre ‘New Music Mart’ 2008, London Contemporary Dance School (U.K.), Small Music Theatre Athens, 21st  Century Greek Music for Guitar Project (Greece), Kulturhaus Lüdenscheid, Düsseldorfer Tonhalle (Germany), Kanagawa Art Hall (Japan), Chamber Concert Series of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra 2009 (Belgium) and elsewhere.

Christina’s music has been played by notable performers such as: Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien (Simul: Lumini, Sombri trio for clarinet, cello and piano), Ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi (Aktaí for chamber ensemble), Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra (Reverse Rivers’Images of Euboea’ for Symphony Orchestra, Naked Branches I for String Orchestra), St Albans Symphony Orchestra/City of London Sinfonia (Overture for the Red Rain for Symphony Orchestra),  Jyväskylä Sinfonia Finlandia (Quatre Silences for Chamber Orchestra), Borealis Brass Ensemble (Cantus Cyprius for Brass Octet), Endymion Ensemble with Stephen Gutman and Richard Benjafield (Midnight Pulses II for chamber three clarinets, piano and percussion), Athens Trio (The Veil of Tears string trio), Connecting Arts (Iniochos for Symphonic Brass Ensemble), Guildhall Percussion Ensemble (Sword Dance for Six Percussionists), trumpet player Paul Archibald, Contemporary Consort, Okeanos Ensemble, Timo Kinnunen (Virgules for Solo Accordion), oboist Piet Van Bockstal, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra (Black Circles for Orchestra) and others.

She has also worked with many young talented artists: violinist Alda Dizdari (Aosmon for solo violin),  members of the Liquid Architecture Chamber Ensemble, choreographer Jamie Boylan (In Vein, for vocalist, chamber ensemble and six dancers), Duo Disecheis (Saxum for Alto-Saxophone and Piano), Soprano Katerina Minà, guitarist Nikos Zarkos (Wasted Window for solo guitar), clarinettist Mikko Raasakka, New Noise and others.

Her distinctions include the Aristotle University Chamber Music Composition Prize, the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers’ Award which led to three commissions and performances in the U.K during the years 2006-7 , various scholarships and more recently the Second ‘Premio GERMI’(Rome 2009).

She has attended masterclasses, workshops and seminars by Philippe Leroux, Peter Sculthorpe, Sarah Walker (Creative Voices, ‘Composing for the Voice’ classes), Ivar Frounberg, Alexander Goehr, James MacMillan (at Piccolo Teatro, Milan, 2006), Peter Stark (Conducting Masterclass at the University of Oxford), Levon Parikian (Conducting), Alessandro Solbiati, Sylvano Bussotti, Tapio Tuomela (Orchestral workshop, Time of Music Festival 2008).

Christina Athinodorou is also active as a conductor. She has given first performances of her own music, more notably her one-act Opera and her orchestral works, as well as music by other composers, leading various professional and amateur ensembles and orchestras. More recently she participated as a conductor in the International MasterCourse for Conductors and Composers at the Herrenhaus-Edenkoben Germany with Peter Eötvös and Zsolt Nagy and the musicians from the International Ensemble Modern Akademie Frankfurt 2009 with whom she recorded for broadcast on the SWR.

Christina graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (composition with Julian Philips and conducting with Alan Hazeldine) obtaining BMus and MMus degrees. She has also studied orchestration, piano and composition at the Conservatoire National Supèrieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon, France (with Robert Pascal, Denis Lorrain and Olivier Kaspar) and at the University of North Texas at Denton, U.S. (Joseph Klein, Nikita Fitenko).

Christina is now studying towards a doctoral degree in Composition  under the supervision of Dr Michael Zev Gordon at the Royal Holloway University of London where she has taught undergraduate students.

She is concurrently a Resident-Composer at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.