Musica Viva 28

Georges Aperghis is one of the most important representatives of contemporary music theater in France. Born in 1945 in Athens as the son of a sculptor and a painter, he moved to Paris in 1963. Following initial autodidactic studies, encounters with the conductor Konstantin Simonovitch, the Ensemble Instrumental Paris and the actress Edith Scob, whom he married in 1965, brought him into contact with Parisian musical circles and the theatrical world there. Especially influential were the works of Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, and Mauricio Kagel. In 1976, he founded the theatrical group Atelier Théâtre et Musique (ATEM), with which he created and performed over twenty of his own pieces by 1997. He is equally interested in solos and in chamber, orchestral, and vocal ensembles. Georges Aperghis has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize of the NRW Art Foundation in 2011 as well as the Prize "Frontiers of Knowledge" of the Fundación BBVA in 2015. Performed by Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks featuring Emilio Pomàrico as conductor and Teodoro Anzellotti on accordion.