Me on a variety of saxes, clarinets, flutes, recorders, and world music wind instruments.
Influences
Josquin, Mozart, Ives, Coltrane, Beatles, Talking Heads, Asian Music and Philosophy, Modern Art.
Sounds Like
WAVES (1982) for computer-generated sound and improvisers by William Susman. Performed by
Demetrius Spaneas - multi-winds and, William Susman - piano at The Stone, New York City, March 17, 2009.
Spaneas "Interlude 3 (Ascension); performance at Mikhail Chemyakin Foundation, St. Petersburg, Russia
Improvisations at "The Stray Dog" in St. Petersburg, Russia
Akis Doutis, "Biofields", performance in Athens, Greece
At The Stray Dog; with digeridoo
Composer/soloist/recording artist Demetrius Spaneas leads a varied international career. He has commissioned, recorded and premiered works by many major composers, including John Cage, John Harbison, Donald Martino, Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, Joan Tower, and many others. He currently has two solo recordings on Capstone Records, When Wind Comes to Sparse Bamboo (2003) and From a Far-off World (2006). In Fall 2008 he will release 3 new recordings, including Sfumato, a collection of improvisations with vocalist Galina Parfenova; The Legacy of Xenakis, a collection of new music by Greek composers; and APXE, the studio recording of his music for the ballet by the same name which will have its premier in Athens in November 2008.
Spaneas’ major interests have included combining improvisation within classically structured forms, with electronics and video, and world music. Currently, he is working with combining aural and visual art forms into multimedia presentations based on ancient thought and ritual. His music has been performed at major venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
In demand as a composer, performer and guest lecturer, Spaneas has been a guest of Harvard University, California Institute of the Arts, Tanglewood, New England Conservatory, American University of Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad), University of the Arts (Belgrade, Serbia), the Xenakis Center for Creative Research (Athens, Greece), Beethovenhaus (Bonn, Germany), Uzbekistan State Conservatory, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) College of Music, Mikhail Chemyakin Foundation (St. Petersburg, Russia), Dnipropetrovsk Conservatory (Ukraine) the Latvian Academy of Music (Riga), and many others. He has also presented numerous talks and concerts for the US State Department in Moscow and St. Petersburg as part of the American Centers program, and has received grants from the US State Department and the Fulbright/Hayes Act to present his music and lectures on composition throughout the CIS.
As a contemporary classical performer, Spaneas has been a member of the Auros Group for New Music (Boston), the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Harvard Group for New Music, Forecast Music (NY), and Percussia (NY), as well as many other chamber and symphonic ensembles in the Northeast. He has also been a guest soloist with numerous classical ensembles, including the Boston Philharmonic and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (Boston). As a commercial performer, he has shared the stage with many top acts, including the Funk Brothers (featured soloist, 2005-06), Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and many others. He is also the founder and leader of the world music ensemble BALKANASIA, which combines music from the Balkans and Near East with jazz and rock, and the co-director of the New York based chamber group the Sapphire Ensemble. He plays exclusively on Gonzales Reeds on clarinet and saxophone and as a composer is a member of ASCAP. He will be the cover story for an upcoming issue of Saxophone Journal.
Currently, Spaneas is Composer-in-Residence with the Bay Area Chamber Symphony (CA), and the Composer-in-Residence and Music Director of the International Symposium of Contemporary Arts and Humanities, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Athens, Greece. He has just received a Meet the Composer Global Connections Grant to be Composer-in-Residence at the 2009 Black Box Music and Vision Festival in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Please see website for all upcoming perfomances.
Hi Demetrius! I leave for NYC tonight and will return on Sunday. It would be great to see you! How long has it been now? Two years?? If you're in NYC on May 2nd I hope you can drop by the Blue Note for the late, late show. I'll be sitting in with the Poogie Bell Band. Should be a lot of fun! Carol
I want to thank you for accepting me as a friend. It is very kind of you. Your music is extraordinary. I love it because it is different, revolutionary, spontaneous, unpredictable, free from norms. A music with no beginning or end, like the blowing winds, the sounds in a forest, the tormentic voices of the inner conscience. Your Spaneas Romance reminds me of the basic tone held in Byzantine music "to isso". The Debussy Syrinx is extraordinary. Congratulations. Imaste iperifani ghia sas.
Greetings from a great city...Mexico City...been here two months...back soon to DC....hpe all is going well.....I want to go to NYC soon...hope wil happen...I just want so badly to collaborate with you in a NY performance...let's see what the future will bring....
for now get a good load of great energy.....and be well with your loved ones and friends.....
