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Copyright

Stella Kourmpana

Published On

2024-10-09

Page Range

pp. 39–48

Language

  • English

Print Length

10 pages

2. Iannis Xenakis through his Letters at the KSYME Archive

  • Stella Kourmpana (author)
Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 39–48)
The KSYME (Contemporary Music Research Centre) was founded in Athens in 1979 by Iannis Xenakis, along with Stefanos Vassiliades and John G. Papaioannou, and twenty-two other members, following the example of Xenakis’s CEMAMu—Centre d’Études de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (founded in 1972 in Paris)—having as a main goal the research and development of computer-based electroacoustic music in Greece. Among the material kept at its Archive (currently located at the Athens Conservatoire) one can find a collection of twenty-three valuable letters by Iannis Xenakis. Through the twenty-two of those addressed to Papaioannou, one can reconstruct Xenakis’s life in Paris as an engineer, architect, and composer during the period 1956-1962 and at the same time become acquainted with his thoughts, his fears, his aspirations; likewise, the letter of 1980, addressed to the president of the Greek Republic, reveals all his dreams about the future of contemporary music in Greece.

Contributors

Stella Kourmpana

(author)

Born in Athens, Stella Kourmpana holds a Bachelor of Theatrology (University of Athens), a Master’s in Theater and Music Studies (Athens University and Ionian University) and a PhD in Musicology (Ionian University). Since September 2013, she has been in charge of the Athens Conservatoire Archives and since July 2022, and since November 2023 she is the Director of the Athens Conservatoire Research and Documentation Centre. She has published several articles on music, opera, theater, and literature in modern Greece and she is Chief Editor of Neos Mousikos Hellenomnemon, a periodical dedicated to the research of Art Music in Greece. She has taught at Ionian University (2014–17) and at the University of Ioannina (2019–21). Currently she is working as writer and co-editor of the three-volume History of Music in Modern Greece (2022–3, Athens Conservatoire). Since April 2023, she has been a Member of the Administrative Board of Contemporary Music Research Center (KSYME).