From our visit at Jubilee Primary, Lambeth.

The primary focus of these workshop days is to introduce students to the fundamental elements of composition, and help them to realise that anyone can compose a piece of music, irrespective of whether they read music, play an instrument or have any prior experience.

This project was realised with the exceptional support of the Marchus Trust.

We focus on the development of graphic scores as an effective tool to represent music visually. Even more importantly, their creation is a direct way of expressing feelings, concerns, wishes and passions.

Graphic notation evolved in the 1950s and is the representation of music through the use of visual symbols outside the realm of traditional music notation. A central figure in this movement was Iannis Xenakis, a composer, architect and engineer. He integrated music with architecture and we aim to explore several of the available school spaces in order to find ways they can be used to inspire and support music making.

In addition to our visits at schools, we have also organised open events for the whole family! For more information, or to book a workshop at your school please contact: gregory@metapraxis.org.uk

From our family event at IKLECTIK (Nov’2019)

The Winter Journey is an audiovisual collage, structured on elements taken from or inspired by Franz Schubert‘s Winterreise, narrating refugee memories in their displacement travel to the unknown. It is an openly collaborative venture, initiated as a response to the current humanitarian crisis developing in a global level. This is also leading to the ensemble’s 10th birthday!

A young refugee on a boat stranded in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, is reading what’s left from an old diary: remembering/re-learning his/her own life story.’

As part of this, we are experimenting with blending Schubert’s lieder with notions from Samuel Beckett’s works Krapp’s Last Tape and Ohio Impromptu and Winterreise-inspired artworks by visual artist Pip Woolf. There has been considerable research in academia and elsewhere on connecting the above (there is a very interesting joint between Beckett and Winterreise, and you might experience some of that in our show), and we are aiming to take it further by linking them with our refugee story. But the cherry on top of this venture are the new works we commisioned to composers and sound artists (up to now: Lucy Callen, Daniel Fígols, Scott Mc Laughlin, and Ruta Vitkauskaite), and the existing works we are incorporating (up to now: Gregory Emfietzis, and Christopher Fox) for vintage reel-to-reel tape machines, voices and instruments, and… mobile phones!

So far, this journey has-taken/is-taking us to the Hundred Years Gallery (Feb’19), Omnibus Theatre (Apr’19) and Cafe OTO (Jun’19), and the musicians involved include Gregory Emfietzis (violin/aux.instr), Daniel Figols (cello/electronics), Neil Georgeson (piano), Angela Hui (percussion), Ilze Ikse (flutes), Loukia Loulaki (cello), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Damian Posse (d.bass).

* With this opportunity, we are fundraising for the refugee-supporting organisations: THREE PEAS, Big Leaf Foundation, and Hay, Brecon & Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees (click on their names to learn more about their extremely important work in the UK and Greece).

Artwork from Pip Woolf’s collection ‘Winterreise’

7/11/2017: Sisyphus Distressing @IKLECTIK, London

We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible. As for the possible, men suffice. – Albert Camus

Metapraxis VI: Sisyphus Distressing

A music (with a pinch of theatre) performance, was presented on the 7th of November (Albert Camus’s birthday anniversary), bringing to life a narrative based on the myth of Sisyphus: an avant-garde sonic environment full of experimental, theatrical and visual elements, intersecting with the absurd narration of the well-known myth (as it was seen by Camus). This project was conceived as the second part of a music and theatre trilogy, based on Camus’s notion of revolt: “the attitude of heroic defiance or resistance to whatever oppresses human beings“. The first part of it can be seen here (performed by the LSO).

The development and production of Sisyphus Victimised have been generously supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation & Arts Council England.

Metapraxis VI: Sisyphus Distrssing [2017/18]

Sisyphus Distressing relates the absurdity of man’s life with the situation of Sisyphus (our protagonist), an iconic image from Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The key points we explore are: endless repetition, meaninglessness, struggle, failure, and hope. The work of the Algerian/French philosopher Albert Camus on Sisyphus is playing a major role on this exploration. The other crucial element of our performance, the mirror, comes from Grimm Brothers’ Evil Queen (antagonist of Snow White).

Sisyphus Distressing is a sonic venture in flexible format. The content of each performance is partly altered as our focus switches between different key points. The project started with a set number of Emfietzis’s existing compositions: sonic works involving various non-musical elements, such as gestures, acting, lights, design. It has since been continuously developing, and thus each of the FOUR previous performances (at IKLECTIK, Blue Elephant Theatre, Cafe OTO, The Cockpit Theatre and later in Bristol) were substantially different!

Living is keeping the absurd alive. – Albert Camus

The Metapraxis
Gregory Emfietzis (composition/devising/production), Neil Georgeson (piano/narration), Angela Hui (percussion), Ilze Ikse (flutes), Loukia Loulaki (cello), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Susan Merrick (integrated BSL interpretation), Rebecca Raimondi (violin)

The supporting crew
Kyveli Anastasiadi (videographer), Edd Cross (video producer), Alma Daskalaki (co-producer), Alex Lesseps (videographer), Matt London (audio engineer), Damian Posse (co-producer, videographer), Mayra Stergiou (stage director)

Metapraxis VI: Rebecca Raimondi

Metapraxis VI: Sisyphus Distressing

Metapraxis VI: Myrto Loulaki

Metapraxis VI: Neil Georgeson

Metapraxis VI: Angela Hui & Ilze Ikse

Metapraxis VI: Sisyphus Distressing

8 & 9/5/2015: L’antigonie @TripSpace Projects, London

A piece of contemporary music and dance by the Consensus Dance Company, attempting to re-contextualise the myth of Antigone, as seen through the eyes of Jean Cocteau. It explores the physicality of the characters as well as the embodiment of frustration and tragedy.

“We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.” – Sophocles

Choreographer Aline Derderian, in collaboration with composer Gregory Emfietzis (following their previous work Défigure sur la plage inerte that can be seen here) and the Metapraxis Ensemble, finds an opportunity to pay tribute to her Armenian origins for the hundred anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915. In the challenge that is diffusing contemporary performance towards Armenian community and vice versa, Consensus Dance Company showcased its work at TripSpace Projects, London on May 8th and 9th 2015, and on the 8th of October, in Yerevan (Armenia), during the HighFest 2015.

The development of this project has been generously supported by the Arts Council England.

Metapraxis Ensemble during L’antigonie @TripSpace Projects

The dancing cast: Sarah Adjou, Alessio Capelli, Aline Derderian, Ughetta Pratesi, Paolo Rosini

The Metapraxis: George Barton (percussion), Rosha Fitzhowle (voice), Ilze Ikse (flutes), Matt London (saxophones), Andrew Power (cello)

L’antigonie @TripSpace Projects

L’antigonie @TripSpace Projects

18/5/2013: Music Impossible @LSO St Lukes, London

In a city from which music has been forcefully banned, a group of citizens secretly manages to discover the truth about the missing sounds and colours. This is a theatrical music performance, devised and composed by Gregory Emfietzis, and presented as a shadow puppetry show. Based on Myrto Loulaki‘s fairy tale, it follows Roger on his mysterious journey, full of thrills and action, as he strives to find a way to destroy all evil.

The development and production of this project have been generously supported by the Arts Council England and the London Symphony Orchestra (through the LSO Soundhub scheme). The above recordings have been taken from the preview performance of Music Impossible at LSO St Lukes and the subsequent performances at Iris Theatre, Covent Garden.

The production team:Gregory Emfietzis – Composer/Dramatist, Charlotte Ive – Stage Director, Ingrid Hu – Scenographer, Jo Lakin – Puppet Designer & Puppeteer

The Metapraxis:Anne Chauveau (cello), Guillermina Chivite (violin), Chris Goodman (clarinet), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Andriana Minou (piano)

Metapraxis Ensemble during Music Impossible @LSO St Luke’s

Metapraxis Ensemble during Music Impossible @LSO St Luke’s

Underscore: [Post]Analogue

A collaboration of Gregory Emfietzis and Nicholas Peters (aka Underscore) exploring the nature, function, and physicality of reel-to-reel tape machines. Following is an introduction about [Post]Analogue by Nicholas Peters [29/06/11].

The simple answer is curiosity, I’d never seen a reel to reel tape machine live and through John Cage and Steve Reich was really intrigued about working with tape. Particularly in Reich’s case the question and fascination over ‘how tape machines made music’ was one driving force behind the choice of reel to reel tape machines as Underscore’s first project.

The other inspiration came when I randomly went to a production of Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ at my local theatre in Taunton, Somerset. As much as the use of reel to reel tape machine was the performance space layout with the male actor sat at a desk at the front with the audience sat in straight lines facing inwards on the other three sides of the square space.

As for the title of the project, it is a comment from Carl Rosman upon a question I asked in a workshop at Darmstadt on composing for Clarinet between him and Rebecca Saunders (composer).

Underscore performing Christopher Fox’s ‘Three-way accumulator’

[Post]Analogue was initiated around the following works for tape:

Gregory Emfietzis
A Monologue (2011), 10″, for two reel to reel tape machines and one performer.

Christopher Fox
Three-way accumulator (2011), 5″, for three voices and one reel to reel tape machine.
Three Constructions after Kurt Schwitters (1993), 20″, for tape.

Anton Lukoszevieze
Lithuania Dreaming (2011), 8″, for one reel to reel tape machine.

Nicholas Peters
Workhouse (2011), 12″, for one reel to reel tape machine.

The fifth Metapraxis projects presents the DIY series, a series of closely related works by Gregory Emfietzis, exploring the theatricality of music performance. In these works, the praxis – in our case the musical actions – becomes part of some sort of theatrical performance (implemented theatricality), often combined with the metapraxis – in our case the nonmusical, theatrical actions. Thus musical performance in its original form becomes part of a dramatic scenario, while the performers become figures with specific personal characteristics.

The Metapraxis Ensemble
Guillermina Chivite (violin), Samara Ginsberg (cello), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Nao Maebayashi (piano)

The fourth Metapraxis project includes live music performance, dead electronics, dead video projections (which seem to come alive every now and then), living and dead composers, some dead instruments and a ghost messing around…

Compositions by:
Samuel Barber, Gregory Emfietzis, Bright Sheng, Caroline Wilkinson

Scenography by: Paul Gittins

The Metapraxis:Guillermina Chivite (violin), Samara Ginsberg (cello), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Nao Maebayashi (piano)

Composer Gregory Emfietzis and choreographer Mariana Lucia Marquez weave together sound and movement developed from her daily dance meditations by Lavender Pond and the Thames in South East London. In dialogue with musicians Myrto Loulaki (singer, multi-instrumentalist) and Guilermina Chivite (violin) of Metapraxis Ensemble, Marquez renders an in-the-moment interpretation of Emfietzis’ score.

Sound: Gregory Emfietzis
Movement: Marina Marquez
Musicians: Guilermina Chivite (violin), Myrto Loulaki (voice)
Costume: Monica Soto Paredes

Mariana Marquez – World Listening Project 2010

The third Metapraxis project -inspired by John Cage’s ideas on silence, sound and noise- is exploring the function of music in performance and the concept of songs in contradicting formats.

Acoustic and electro-acoustic works by
William Cheshire, Anne Cleare, Gregory Emfietzis, Christopher Fox, Johnny Herbert, Scott Mc Laughlin and Franz Schubert.

The Metapraxis:
Guillermina Chivite (violin), Samara Ginsberg (cello), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Nao Maebayashi (piano)

The second Metapraxis project, built on John Dowland’s ‘Flow my tears‘ and Yannis Kyriakides’s ‘Satellites‘, is thematically concerned with the contemporary world life’s current state of affairs, consequences of selfishness and personal insensitivity.

Acoustic and electro-acoustic works by
John Dowland, Gregory Emfietzis, George Holloway, Yannis Kyriakides, Scott McLaughlin and W.A.Mozart

The Metapraxis:
Guillermina Chivite (violin), Richard Jones (viola), Myrto Loulaki (voice), Andriana Minou (piano), Ella Rundle (cello)