Konstantia Gourzi


Konstantía Gourzí is a Greek composer and conductor. She is professor of ensemble conducting and new music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.

Life and studies

Born in Athens, Konstantia Gourzi received her first piano lessons at the age of seven. At thirteen, she joined the conservatorium in Athens, where she studied composition and conducting as well as piano. From 1987 to 1992, she continued her studies at Hochschule der Künste Berlin. There, she founded her first ensemble attaca berlin.
During her studies in Berlin, Konstantia Gourzi completed masterclasses with composers such as Péter Eötvös, Hans Werner Henze, Wolfgang Rihm, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Walter Zimmermann; and with conductors like Michael Gielen, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Günter Wand. An important mentor was Diether de la Motte. From 1988 to 1992, Gourzi assisted Claudio Abbado with the Berliner Philharmoniker. From 1993 to 1996, she worked closely with György Kurtág. In 1992 and 1994 she was a laureate of Deutscher Musikrat and in 1995, she won second prize at the International Competition for Conductors of Contemporary Music in Paris. Konstantia Gourzi has been awarded several international scholarships, for example from the Onassis Foundation and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. In 2008, she received the prize of the Christoph-und-Stephan-Kaske Foundation for her work as a conductor and composer, and for her innovative performance concepts.
Konstantia Gourzi has been professor of ensemble conducting and new music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich since 2002.

Ensembles and concert series

In 1991, Konstantia Gourzi founded the attacca berlin ensemble, which she directed until 1996. Its main focus was music of the 20th century. With attacca berlin, she also realized the international concert project "time zones", supported by the Berlin Senate for Cultural Affairs. The ensemble also worked with the Berliner Festwochen, and various other music festivals. There were numerous radio recordings.
From 1999 to 2007, Gourzi was artistic director of ensemble echo at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. There she initiated the concert series anschläge 1, 2, and concerto fresco. She collaborated with Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Konzerthaus and Akademie der Künste Berlin. In her time as artistic director, numerous radio recordings were made.
As a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, she founded the ensemble oktopus für musik der moderne in 2002, which she still conducts today. Together with the ensemble she has initiated various concert series such as "Neue Musik und Improvisation", "Konzert mit Solisten" and "Neue Musik International". From 2003 to 2008, she managed the concert series "Junge Solisten" of the Siemens Arts Program in cooperation with the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Meanwhile, there are numerous recordings of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and CD recordings. Cooperations existed a.o. with the Pinakothek der Moderne, the gallery camera artis, the Künstlerhaus München, the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding, and the Munich Biennale.
In 2007, Konstantia Gourzi founded the network and ensemble opus21musikplus, with the aim of bringing music across borders to other art forms and musical genres. In 2007, the ensemble released their first CD: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire plus Jazz, and Berio's Folksongs. They also collaborated with the Franz Marc Museum and the Bayerische Akademie der schönen Künste, and there are ongoing projects with diverse music institutions and festivals. The ensemble designed the concert series "Neue griechische Musik in München", and performed many times on radio. From 2008 to 2013, Konstantia Gourzi organised an education program with opus21musikplus at elementary schools in Munich. This was supported by the Bayerisches Kultusministerium, the Kulturreferat München, and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, among others. Konstantia Gourzi still is the artistic director of the ensemble.

Artistic activities

Composition

Konstantia Gourzi's compositional work includes works for solo instruments, chamber music, choir and orchestra. She has received important commissions from the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Ensemble Musica Nova Israel, the State Orchestra Athens, the Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau, the Kasseler Tage für Neue Musik, the Ex Novo Ensemble in Venice, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising, the Patrimonio Nacional Spain, the Bavarian State Ministry, the Lucerne Festival, the ARD International Music Competition, the BBC, the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. In her assignments and projects she has often been supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
In 2002, the premiere of her first orchestral composition Mykene took place under her own direction with the orchestra of the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt. In the same year, she was the first woman to conduct Verdi's La Traviata at the State Opera Athens. Under commission from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Gourzi transformed Haydn's Philemon and Baucis into an innovative play by means of her own compositions. This work was reperformed at the Spring Festival Budapest and the Festival European Church Music Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Konstantia Gourzi was Composer in Residence at the 58th Festival Europäische Wochen Passau, at the festival Aktuelle Musik in Nuremberg, and in 2017/2018 she was a scholar of the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg. At the ION Festival in Nuremberg, the work Paharión, the Red Angel in the Garden of Las Huelgas was premiered in June 2018 as a concert in motion. In addition, she composed the compulsory piece for viola Evening at the window for the ARD International Music Competition 2018. In October 2018, the work Transformation - A staged musical work, as a signal against child abuse, commissioned by the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising in collaboration with the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, was premiered in the church of Sant'Ignazio. This is the first artistic commission from the Catholic Church, on this subject.

Conducting

Konstantia Gourzi has conducted many world premieres. She develops new program concepts, with the aim to give a new focus as well as to combine old and new. In this capacity, she has been artistic director of the Samos Young Artists Festival in Greece. In addition to her own ensembles, she conducted and conducts orchestras such as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Orchester Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Patras Chamber Orchestra, State Opera and Orchestras of the Greek Radio Athens, Klangforum Wien, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble New Music Moscow, Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, and the Lucerne Academy Orchestra.
Her work as a conductor and her compositions are documented in detail, through radio recordings, television broadcasts and live streams. Her extensive discography includes recordings of her compositions and of her conducted works, for example published by ECM, NEOS, NAXOS, and SONY-Classical.

Compositions (selection)

Konstantia Gourzi's works are published in the "Edition Gourzi" special edition, by Höflich.

Orchestra (selection)

Konstantia Gourzi as composer