About The Composer: Nickitas Demos (b. 1962, Boulder, Colorado) holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Music in Composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His principal teachers were Donald Erb (1927-2008) and Roger Hannay (1930-2006). Commissions include works for the Cleveland Orchestra, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Chamber Players, the Georgia Music Teachers Association and the National Association of College Wind & Percussion Instructors. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a MacDowell Fellowship (2011), Grand Prize in the 2004 Millennium Arts International Competition for Composers, Grand Prize in the 2005 Holyoke Civic Symphony Composition Competition, Birmingham and Atlanta Prizes in the Hultgren 2005 Solo Cello Works Biennial Composition Competition and 14 ASCAP Awards among others. Demos’ works have been programmed at festivals, symposia and conferences including the 43rd Dimitria Festival (Thessaloniki, Greece); the 18th International Review of Composers (Belgrade Serbia); the International Festival – Institute at Round Top (TX); the Ernest Bloch Music Festival (Newport, OR); the New Music Forum Festival of Contemporary Music (San Francisco, CA); and at National and Regional Conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) and the College Music Society (CMS). His music is self-published through Sylvan Lake Press (ASCAP) and has been recorded by MSR Classics and Capstone Records. Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Composition Studies at the Georgia State University School of Music, Demos is the Founder and Artistic Director of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble. Additionally, he serves on the Executive Committee of SCI and is the Musical Director for the Greek Islanders, an ensemble he founded in 1982 specializing in Greek folk music. Program Notes: The inspiration for the "Suite for Oboe, Viola and Piano" came from the lovely "Suite pour Violon, Clarinette et Piano" by Darius Milhaud. I was particularly interested in the scheme of movements found in the Milhaud work: a fast opening movement, a slow second movement, a third movement that was a duet between the string and woodwind instruments omitting the piano, and a concluding movement using the entire ensemble. Outside of this general format, the work bears very little resemblance to the Milhaud Suite particularly in terms of overall length and pitch construction. Each of the four movements has a distinct personality. The opening movement, "Circle Music," derives its title from a circular eight note motive that permeates the music. After a strong, opening unison gesture, this motive appears in the oboe and viola briefly. Later, the piano picks up on the motive and repeats it incessantly as other related materials float above. Finally, all three performers gradually join in playing the motive until the music leads back to the opening unison gesture. In this manner, the entire movement is circular in nature and could be repeated (although no such indication is given in the score). The second movement, "in praise of stillness…," concerns itself with a very limited set of pitch materials and consciously avoids rigorous developmental procedures. It is cast in a simple bipartite form with the first half of the movement introducing the materials to be used as well as setting overall mood of the music. There is one large crescendo at the end of the first half that leads directly into the second half of the movement. In this section, one simple motive is sounded repeatedly at varying intervals and rhythmic durations until the movement finally, simply and quietly concludes. "Aegean Counterpoint" is a rollicking, virtuoso duet for the oboe and viola alone. It is based loosely upon Greek dance rhythms and scales derived from Greek folk music. The fourth and final movement, "Aubade," begins immediately upon the conclusion of movement three with a small piano solo. The music constantly builds throughout the movement. As the piano gradually builds from a slow opening to a sensuously flowing stream of pitches, the oboe and viola make their respective entrances floating serenely above the motion in the piano. The oboe, viola and piano gradually coalesce into a fast moving and rhythmically unified statement. At the climax of this section, there is a return to the opening chordal material found in the piano. This material, however, is presented at much louder dynamic level and is accompanied by the oboe and viola. This section is followed by a brief coda that features ascending scales in the three instruments and ultimately leads to a short restatement of the unison gesture found in the first movement before reaching its exciting conclusion. "Tonoi I" and "Tonoi II" are the first two works in an ongoing series of pieces for solo performers. During the course of writing these solo works, I have established certain characteristics common to all the pieces in the series. The pieces are episodic and abstract in nature, having no particular idea or “program” attached to them. Although presented in one contiguous movement, the works are divided into clear sections. Each piece is dedicated and written for a specific performer. In the case of these works, I have written and dedicated "Tonoi I" to violist Tania Maxwell Clements and "Tonoi II" to pianist Cary Lewis. I write these pieces in a linear fashion – beginning with the first measure and writing straight through to the last with no insertions of sections; composing a later section before an earlier section, etc. It is typical for the works to use and develop the harmonic and melodic materials presented at the beginning of a given work throughout the piece. Each section of the respective pieces moves further away from the original statement. Succeeding sections may seem to have been arrived at in a logical manner, however, they move the listener further and further away from the opening motivic and/or harmonic environment originally presented. The game that I set-up up for myself is to figure out a way to return to the opening material no matter how far I have wandered. In all of the Tonoi works, I am also interested in writing as idiomatically as possible for the respective solo instrument. "Three Gestures For Solo Cello" is a virtuoso work for the instrument in three distinct movements. I had initially intended the piece to be abstract in character. However, I have come to realize over the years that it is actually a companion piece to the work, "Mnimosinon," a work written in memoriam to my father and included on this album. "Three Gestures" was completed directly after "Mnimosinon" and shares a similar structure and sense of mourning as depicted by the restless, lyrical melody of the first movement and the plaintive melody built upon fifths found in the second movement. The third and final movement is a lively dance-like piece based loosely upon Greek folk melodies and rhythms. It serves as an energetic and light-hearted finale to the work and a celebration of my father's life. "Mnimosinon" was completed in 1989 near the anniversary of my father's passing and received its premiere by a student ensemble at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1990. The title is taken from the name of a Greek Orthodox Church memorial service that commemorates the anniversary of a parishioner's passing. The piece has three sections, the first features two long introspective cadenzas by the clarinet and the cello respectively. This section is reflective of great and personal loss. The second section, lighter and more joyous in character, is a celebration of my father’s life. A quote from the final byzantine hymn chanted at a mnimosinon, "May his memory be eternal" is featured in the third section of the piece. The chant quotation appears in the cello and in an off-stage clarinet while the on-stage clarinet holds a drone. This final section of the work is intended to reflect the union, through prayer, of the Church Militant (that is, those alive on this earth) and the Church Triumphant (those who have passed on). Also, because my father was a clarinetist (as am I), the use of these instruments at the end of the work, separated by physical space, is a very personal response to his passing. "Postscript" is a brief, single movement work that explores the interplay between silence and intense rhythmic activity. The piece begins with a unison rhythmic gesture followed by a cell of inactivity. Rhythmic gestures gradually increase in frequency and complexity, eventually overwhelming succeeding cells of silence. The initial rhythmic gestures found at the beginning of the piece also provide the pitch and timbral materials developed throughout the work. Written after several orchestral works and the completion of my graduate studies, I sought a brief refuge from large ensemble writing. The title refers to the fact that this was the final piece I wrote prior to leaving Cleveland, Ohio and assuming my first academic appointment in Atlanta, Georgia at the Georgia State University School of Music.