Profiles
Basil Athanasiadis studied composition at Trinity College of Music with Daryl Runswick, then at Royal Academy of Music where he completed his Masters Degree with Paul Patterson in 2004, and finally at Canterbury Christ Church University where he obtained his PhD in 2009, supervised by Roderick Watkins and Paul Patterson and examined by Jonathan Harvey.
The musical identity of his works has been moulded by a diverse variety of influences, ranging from Celibidache's teachings on music phenomenology, the classical and contemporary music tradition to the music traditions and aesthetics from Japan and China. His works are characterised by a strong visual identity and their performances have often been associated with dance or stage action (i.e. Little Songs of the Geisha, Terpsichore Bemused, Jardin D'Iris, Fantasmata, Book of Dreams).
His late period works show a strong focus on the largely unexplored Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi (thoughtful simplicity), which has been his main area of research since 2004, featuring elements of asymmetry, non-teleological thematic coherence, fragmentation, quietness, sparcity, the incorporation of noise, and lack of strong climactic gestures. As in the Japanese traditional music, due to its often subdued character, his music requires an inner interpretational virtuosity that differs diametrically from the Western approach.
His past research has recently attracted the interest of the Tokyo University of Music and Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku) leading to his invitation in Tokyo for the post of the Special Foreign Researcher for the period of 2010-2011 funded by the JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award.