Compositions for piano, voice and ensembles, alongside electroacoustic and mixed works. The section connects works with available information about concerts, festivals and premieres.
An electroacoustic composition whose sound material is shaped by processing recordings of cosmic signals and microsounds. It appears on the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association compilation “Imeres 2025”.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Fixed media, 2 channels
Publication / release
2025
Duration
7′43″
Publisher / label
HELMCA
Collection / album
Days 2025
Performances & presentations
Electroacoustic Music Days 2025
17–19 October 2025
Kampereio Theatre (DIPETHE)
23rd annual meeting of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA).
Based on sound events emerging from generative artificial intelligence and sequences produced through algorithmic composition, the work reshapes its material using conventional processing techniques. The meeting of computational processes and human intervention provides a starting point for exploring new forms of interaction, expression and creation in a changing post-digital environment.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Fixed media, 2 channels
Duration
6′58″
Programme note
Based on sound events emerging from generative artificial intelligence and sequences produced through algorithmic composition, the work reshapes its material using conventional processing techniques. The meeting of computational processes and human intervention provides a starting point for exploring new forms of interaction, expression and creation in a changing post-digital environment.
Performances & presentations
Token of Love for Sound and Resonance
29 Nov 2025
Ergastirio
Organised by Stelios Giannoulakis. Diffusion through a 16-channel acousmonium.
The composition Simfirmós (for piano and tape) draws inspiration from Hans Richter’s “Filmstudie” (1926). Just as the film blends faces, eyes, and geometric shapes to create a poetic collage of visuals, this piece aims to transport the listener to an auditory realm where the natural and the abstract intertwine through sound experimentation and the juxtaposition of piano with electroacoustic elements. The prerecorded material features sound experiments with the EMS Synthi 100.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Piano & tape
Duration
4′08″
Programme note
The composition Simfirmós (for piano and tape) draws inspiration from Hans Richter’s “Filmstudie” (1926). Just as the film blends faces, eyes, and geometric shapes to create a poetic collage of visuals, this piece aims to transport the listener to an auditory realm where the natural and the abstract intertwine through sound experimentation and the juxtaposition of piano with electroacoustic elements. The prerecorded material features sound experiments with the EMS Synthi 100.
The sound material is based on recordings of Year 5 and Year 6 primary school pupils. The work questions stereotypical views of education and raises concerns about the distortion and transformation of children’s characters and personalities. Cheerful children’s voices and sounds of nature are violently transformed into an urban environment shaped by contemporary everyday rhythms. The final child’s shriek, stripped back sonically, may suggest a hope for the future.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Fixed media, 2 channels
Duration
3′55″
Programme note
The sound material is based on recordings of Year 5 and Year 6 primary school pupils. The work questions stereotypical views of education and raises concerns about the distortion and transformation of children’s characters and personalities. Cheerful children’s voices and sounds of nature are violently transformed into an urban environment shaped by contemporary everyday rhythms. The final child’s shriek, stripped back sonically, may suggest a hope for the future.
A choral setting of Lambros Porfyras’s poem “Sad Evening” for mixed SATB choir and piano. The score identifies it as part of the collection “Musical Voices”.
A setting of Nikos Alexis Aslanoglou’s poem “Posterity” for voice and piano. The vocal line carries the poetic text within the musical setting developed by the piano.
A song on poetry by Kostis Gimosoulis, sung by Filippos Passalidis. Released digitally on 16 October 2023 through CD Baby, with music and mixing by Yannis Mygdanis.
A setting of Nazım Hikmet’s poem in Yannis Ritsos’s Greek translation. It focuses on the first part, with lines inserted from the second, bringing forward the determination, responsibility and hope with which the poet approaches life and the future.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Piano & voice
Poetry / lyrics
Nâzım Hikmet — Greek rendering by Yannis Ritsos
Publication / release
2020
Publisher / label
Bo-synthesis / Protasis Music
Programme note
Nâzım Hikmet wrote On Living in prison, in the tenth year of his twenty-eight-year sentence. This deeply moving three-part poem presents the seriousness of life through simple, everyday images. The musical setting focuses on the first part, with interpolated lines from the second. With determination, Hikmet stresses the importance of life and our obligation to take it seriously, working towards a better future that we may never see. He is not merely optimistic: he is certain that the most beautiful days are still ahead. These words give him the strength to remain faithful to his values and ideals, willing to make sacrifices without expecting anything in return, so that people whose faces he will never see can live.
A short cycle of four songs setting poems by Kostas Karyotakis and Maria Polydouri. Dissatisfaction, impasse and unfulfilled love connect the settings. Composed at different times, the songs came together through their shared themes as a cycle for female voice and a small ensemble.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Voice & small ensemble
Poetry / lyrics
Kostas Karyotakis & Maria Polydouri
Publication / release
2020
Publisher / label
Bo-synthesis / Protasis Music
Programme note
Four Sketches for an Unfulfilled Love brings together four settings by two poets of the interwar generation. Beyond their well-known relationship, Kostas Karyotakis and Maria Polydouri share a sense of dissatisfaction, impasse and the pessimism of unfulfilment. They met in 1922, fell deeply in love, and their brief relationship marked their subsequent work. When Karyotakis learned that he had syphilis, then an incurable disease, he asked her to separate. Polydouri proposed marriage without children, but he refused her sacrifice, leading her to believe that the illness was an excuse to leave her. She became engaged a year later but secretly continued to love Karyotakis, gradually moving towards self-destruction: ending her engagement, losing her civil-service job after repeated absences and discontinuing her law studies. In 1928 she contracted tuberculosis. While hospitalised in Athens, she learned of his suicide and sank further into melancholy, until her death in 1930. The four poems were set at different times, orchestrated and recorded in summer 2020. Their conceptual connections formed this small song cycle.
Credits
Vocals
Katerina Avgeri
Violin
Periklis Timplalexis
Cello
Alexandros Kasartzis
Flute
Danai Fari
Clarinet
Elettra Murru
Flugelhorn
Giorgos Giombazolias
Mandolin & baglamas
Haris Livanios
Piano, synthesizer, accordion, metallophone, guitar & electric bass
A setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem asking when a word begins to live: before or after it is spoken. The musical treatment of the text and persistent repetitions at the end explore uncertainty in communication and the distance between what is said and what is heard.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Voice
Poetry / lyrics
Emily Dickinson
Publication / release
2019
Publisher / label
Bo-synthesis / Protasis Music
Programme note
Some maintain that a word remains alive while it has not been spoken. Can it have meaning for someone if it is never uttered—and, if so, what meaning? The poet proposes that a word leaves the shadowy world of limitless possibilities and meanings and acquires substance when someone uses it. It needs daylight to breathe. Yet is merely uttering it enough to bring it to life? Would it breathe in the same way for everyone? Perhaps it will never be heard; perhaps it will not be spoken, yet someone will hear it. The obsessive repetitions at the end create an inner conflict and confusion, recalling George Bernard Shaw’s observation about communication and the illusion that it has taken place.
A work for piano and voice setting poetry by Yannis Ritsos, exploring love and the value of life in the face of time. Singing and narration alternate with marked changes of dynamics, metre and tempo. Motifs drawn from Greek rhythms and dances connect its sections as a musical suite.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Piano & voice
Poetry / lyrics
Yannis Ritsos
Publication / release
2019
Publisher / label
Bo-synthesis / Protasis Music
Programme note
A work for piano and voice. It sets one of the most beautiful, tender and truthful poems about love, desire and life. Through vivid everyday images, the poet conveys the characters’ physical and emotional intensity, expanding time and turning a moment into eternity: a hymn to the value of life in the face of time and death. Strong dynamic contrasts, sudden changes of metre and tempo, and alternations between singing and narration shape the work’s musical character. Different rhythmic patterns drawn from Greek rhythms and dances form a musical suite.
Song cycle · book-CD·Two voices, narrator & small ensemble
Abstract
A cycle of 21 settings of poems by C. P. Cavafy, beginning with “Voices”. Memories, unfulfilled love and inner contradictions connect the selected poems in a musical journey for voices, narrator and a small instrumental ensemble. An introduction and interlude complete the cycle.
My encounter with the poet’s work began in my teenage years, when I discovered The Complete Works of C. P. Cavafy in our home library. I opened the book at a random page and began reading. From the first poem, I experienced something unfamiliar. Thoughts and fears that I had kept hidden came alive before me, against my will, and acquired a new dimension through the lines of each poem: thoughts, fears, desires, meanings and emotions that I both feared and longed to experience.
At that time I tentatively tried to set some poems to music. My musical knowledge and aesthetic judgement were not yet developed enough to produce a result that satisfied me. Yet I felt a powerful need to put on the stave the feelings these poems awakened. That need continued to smoulder, returning at different periods, each time more strongly.
At the beginning of 2013, I decided to start setting the poems again, without relying on a single note or thought from my earlier attempts. The first was Voices. On completing it, I felt those voices gradually coming alive, memories unfolding and taking form in other Cavafy poems. This conceptual connection guided my choice of poems. The impulse driving me left little room for calculated strategies. Each setting is an inseparable part of my emotional state at that time, always grounded in respect for the poet’s words.
I worked on the composition for about a year, taking Voices as my starting point; it ultimately gave the song cycle its title. The poems and their sequence were chosen entirely through personal and aesthetic judgement. Adding an introduction and interlude completed the cycle’s final form.
Setting these poems was an inner necessity rather than simply a desire. That necessity was filled with tensions, conflicts and contradictions, expressed in different ways throughout the work. These formal and orchestral contradictions are within me; I am present within them, and I intend to stand by them.
The ideal voices awaken our earliest memories, the ones the mind tries to hide and forget. Yet they emerge when night comes, like music fading away. They are thoughts of unfulfilled loves we beg to return and take us with them, of decisions we could not make, situations we could not change, and actions we wished to alter but our minds resisted.
These memories return as extinguished candles multiply, as we swear to begin a better life, as the same tedious things repeat—until the moment comes when, prepared and courageous, we must bid farewell to the Alexandria we are losing.
Yannis Mygdanis
September 2017
A collection of eight original piano pieces with an educational focus, intended for publication together. It brings together the compositions presented in Vol. I and II of “Around the World in… 88 Keys”. The individual pieces, performances and related material are recorded within the same collection.
Work details & performances (2)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Piano
Performances & presentations
Around the World in… 88 Keys — Vol. II
16 May 2025
Athens Concert Hall – “Giannis Marinos” Hall
Students of Elena Christodoulou’s piano class
Pieces from the collection: Five Footprints on the Wind, Dance of the astral toys, Endless chase of the elusive, Fleeting Skysteps.
A musical scene in four parts for solo flute. The score combines changes of metre, tempo and dynamics with varied articulation and sound production, including “t–k” syllables.
A solo piano work consisting of a theme and eight variations. The successive variations develop the thematic material in the sequence set out in the score.
A composition with a circular form and repetitive development of its material. It uses the whole-tone scale and diminished fifths to evoke a train of thought returning to its starting point.
Four successive sections for prepared piano evoke different time frames of memory. Each returns to a melodic, rhythmic or timbral motif, gradually intensifying its emotional charge. The memories themselves remain open, inviting performers and listeners to recall their own.
Work details & material
Book edition
Publisher
Poeta Musical Editions — Cultural Society of Athens
Poeta Musical Editions — Cultural Society of Athens
ISMN
979-0-9016038-3-7
Programme note
Thymises for prepared piano was completed in July 2017. As its title suggests, it is a collection of memories divided into four sections. Each describes a particular period rather than a single thought, bringing different but successive memories to life as one inevitably leads to the next.
Each memory is represented by a particular melodic, rhythmic or timbral motif. It returns insistently throughout the piece, contributing to the emotional intensity and ultimately to the sonic result. I prefer not to elaborate further on the thoughts behind the work, so that performers and listeners may recall their own memories.
Yannis Mygdanis
Marousi, July 2017
A solo piano work shaped by an ongoing conflict between anger and melancholy. Images and memories sometimes connect and sometimes abruptly interrupt the musical flow. Sudden dynamic changes, dissonant intervals and rhythmic shifts express this inner tension without a final resolution.
Work details & material
Book edition
Publisher
Poeta Musical Editions — Cultural Society of Athens
Poeta Musical Editions — Cultural Society of Athens
ISMN
979-0-9016038-4-4
Programme note
Toccata for pianoforte was completed in late 2016. It brings together closely connected images, thoughts and moods, reflecting the composer’s emotional intensity without a fixed beginning or end. At times these thoughts form a continuous sequence; at others, memories intrude unexpectedly and forcefully, interrupting coherence and the train of thought.
The whole structure is a perpetual battle of emotions and an attempt to impose one state upon another. Rage, allied with intensity, tries to overcome the slow disposition of melancholy. The work balances between these opposing states, which share one element: memories of the past. One is sadness and melancholy over unfulfilment; the other is anger and rage, erupting rhythmically and harmonically through abrupt dynamic changes and dissonant intervals, unable to moderate its momentum. Their alternation is only apparent. It is not a dialogue: each opponent gains time to recover and attack again. The battle never ends, and no victor emerges.
At the end comes a possibly liberating outburst of rage. Before it can be grasped, melancholy returns and makes its presence felt again. Rage becomes anger trying to escape, but the rhythm has changed and it is exhausted. It offers one final resistance, knowing what lies ahead, and then grows calm.
Yannis Mygdanis
Marousi, July 2017
A song about the history of Pierce – The American College of Greece. Its lyrics were written by E1 students in the 2023–2024 school year and set to music by Yannis Mygdanis.
A choral setting of “Peace” from Yannis Ritsos’s collection Agrypnia. The Pierce Elementary School Choir performs the recording, released digitally in February 2024.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Children’s choir
Poetry / lyrics
Yannis Ritsos — Agrypnia
Publication / release
2024
Publisher / label
CD Baby
Credits
Performance
Pierce Elementary School Choir — The American College of Greece
A children’s song with lyrics by Mai Kokidou, sung by Filippos Passalidis. The digital release is available through CD Baby, together with a PDF score.
A children’s song with lyrics by Mai Kokidou, sung by Filippos Passalidis. The digital release is available through CD Baby, together with a PDF score.
Music for Giota K. Alexandrou’s children’s book, illustrated by Efi Lada. Published by Patakis, the story is accompanied by original music with lyrics by the author.
Work details & material
Book edition
Publisher
Πατάκης
Contribution
Music composition
Illustration
Έφη Λαδά
Publication year
2019
Source of the description and record: Edition details. The abstract is a concise adaptation.
Original music for the school theatre production Santa’s Academy. The script and direction were created by the second-grade student group at Pierce Elementary School – The American College of Greece.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Performances & presentations
Santa’s Academy
2024
Pierce Theatre
Script & direction: Pierce Elementary School second-grade student group.
Musical guidance and sound development for the collaborative Pierce Leadership Academy 2023 production. The music grew through improvisation with the student group and was presented on 7 July at Deree’s Blackbox Theater.
Work details & performances (1)
Contribution
Musical guidance & sound development
Credits
Coordination
Yiannos Tsatalis, Maria Saliari, Christoforos, Yannis Mygdanis
Performances & presentations
Pierce Leadership Academy 2023
7 July 2023
Blackbox Theater, Deree – The American College of Greece
Original music for the school theatre production Let’s Dress Santa Claus!. The script and direction were created by the second-grade student group at Pierce Elementary School – The American College of Greece.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Performances & presentations
Let’s Dress Santa Claus!
2023
Pierce Theatre
Script & direction: Pierce Elementary School second-grade student group.
Original music for the short film Here I Am! The concept and screenplay were created by the students of the Pierce Elementary School Film Club – The American College of Greece.
Original music for the short film created by Pierce Elementary School’s film club. The composition received the Music Award at the 14th international student film competition “Cinema… Did You Read?” in 2024.
Work details & material
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Awards
Music Composition Award — 14th international student film competition “Cinema… Did You Read?”, 2024
Credits
Direction & editing
P. Kostis
Screenplay
Students of the Pierce Elementary School Film Club
Original music for Giota K. Alexandrou’s book, illustrated by Foteini Tikkou. The music accompanies storytelling and presentations involving play, puppetry and live performance.
Interactive music work·Digital & acoustic instruments, tangible interfaces
Abstract
A live interactive work for children and audience. Audience responses through mobile devices become musical choices for the student orchestra, using words, colours and cards.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Digital & acoustic instruments, tangible interfaces
Performances & presentations
WAAE Athens Summit 2024
17 October 2024
Modern Greek Language Teaching Centre, NKUA – Auditorium, Athens
Interactive music work·Digital & acoustic instruments, tangible interfaces
Abstract
An experimental work connecting colour and sound through Kandinsky’s art. It combines digital musical instruments, tangible interfaces and acoustic instruments in a student orchestra.
Work details & performances (1)
Composer
Yannis Mygdanis
Instruments / media
Digital & acoustic instruments, tangible interfaces
Performances & presentations
WAAE Athens Summit 2024
17 October 2024
Modern Greek Language Teaching Centre, NKUA – Auditorium, Athens
The second concert in the series “Around the World in… 88 Keys – In Dialogue with Today’s Composers” takes place on 16 May 2025 in the “Giannis Marinos” Hall at the Athens Concert Hall. Students of pianist and educator E. Christodoulou perform works by sixteen contemporary Greek composers, engaging with current piano repertoire through study and public performance.
The Two-Day Contemporary Music Festival of KSYME takes place on 22–23 November 2024 at the Athens Conservatoire and includes works by Greek and international composers for electronic and electroacoustic media. The two concert evenings present different directions in contemporary music creation and sound processing.
The third concert in the series “100 Works by Contemporary Greek Composers” takes place on 23 November 2024 at the Lykovrysi–Pefki Municipal Theatre. The series presents new works by contemporary Greek composers through successive concert programmes.
The second concert in the series “100 Works by Contemporary Greek Composers” takes place on 3 November 2024 at the Mousiki Praxi Conservatoire in Athens and includes new works by contemporary Greek composers.
The first concert in the series “100 Works by Contemporary Greek Composers” takes place on 19 October 2024 and opens a sequence of presentations devoted to new works in contemporary Greek composition. The programme includes pieces for different instrumental combinations.
On 17 October 2024, within the WAAE Athens Summit 2024, the student project Pierce Little Musicians DIY Orchestra is presented by primary-school students from Pierce – The American College of Greece. The activity connects music performance with the construction and use of digital musical instruments.
The KSYME Electronic Music Concert takes place on 27 June 2024 at the Athens Conservatoire and includes electronic and electroacoustic works for different combinations of media.
The first concert in the series “Around the World in… 88 Keys – In Dialogue with Today’s Composers” takes place on 19 April 2024 in the “Giannis Marinos” Hall at the Athens Concert Hall. Students of pianist and educator E. Christodoulou perform works by contemporary Greek composers that have been incorporated into their piano studies.
The KSYME Electronic Music Class Concert takes place on 29 February 2024 at the Athens Conservatoire and presents works created during the first semester of the Electronic Music class. The programme brings together different approaches to electronic and electroacoustic composition.
The Two-Day Contemporary Music Festival of KSYME takes place on 1–2 December 2023 at the Athens Conservatoire and is dedicated to the memory of H. Xanthoudakis. The two concert evenings include works by Greek and international composers for acoustic, electronic and mixed media.
On 4 July 2023, at the conclusion of the Forum for Young Researchers II of CCE-NKUA, a participatory music activity takes place at the School of Philosophy. Participants from different programmes and members of the audience join a music-making process that begins without prior rehearsal.
