Commissioned and premiered by Ensemble intercontemporain 
Premiere: 09 March 2022, Philharmonie de Paris 
Conductor: Simon Proust

Program notes (excerpt): 
The word Septiphobie (orig. septophobia) signifies primarily the fear of decomposition or decay, hence death; but as is the case with the majority of Greek words, it also encompasses a number of secondary philosophical interpretations and narratives. Septó (Gr. σεπτό) also denotes a sacred object or subject, which infuses worship and respect. The word is directly associated with and perhaps derives from the word eptá (Gr. επτά) – which translates into seven – a number that was considered sacred since the Homeric times. But how can these contrasting concepts, of demise and virtue, co- exist in a single word? Throughout human history, religion and mythology, there have been countless examples of conquering death through rebirth or resurrection. Septiphobie, therefore, poses a rhetorical question that is extremely relevant today: Why are we so afraid of death? And if the same word for decay, or death, can be bestowed to sacredness, why are we so afraid of the sacred gift of life, death’s antipode?

All rights reserved Ⓒ Tsiartas 2021

Septiphobie

Septiphobie (2021) for chamber orchestra

Commissioned by: European University Cyprus, contemporary music lab
Premiered: May 2023, Nicosia, Cyprus
Performer: Lorenda Ramou

In this miniature piano piece, a single musical idea attempts to unfold and develop. However, it keeps falling off its course, in a way, giving the impression that it is predestined to be void of course. The title is inspired by the astrological term ‘void of course’ describing the motion of the moon, when it makes its last major aspect before changing from one sign to the next. 

All rights reserved Ⓒ Tsiartas 2023

VOID COURSE (2023) a miniature for solo piano

Andreas Tsiartas
PNOÉ (2018)
for clarinet, violin, piano and violoncello
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Premiere:  Ensemble Modern, October 5th, 2018
Occasion: 10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival, Cyprus.
*Winner at DYCE competition (2019)
Here performed by: CIkada Ensemble, Oslo/ Norway
Conductor: Christian Eggen

Live video recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVUk7TZ-bk

All rights reserved © Andreas Tsiartas/ GEMA 2020

Pnoé (2018) for ensemble

Andreas Tsiartas
PARAESTHISIS (2006)
for solo cello
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Premiered by Tatjana Redjko, 
November 2006
Dresden, Germany

All rights reserved © Andreas Tsiartas/ GEMA 2020

Paraesthisis (2006) for solo cello

Andreas Tsiartas
STRING QUARTET Nr. 2 'Átractos'
---Written for the 6th Edition of the Academy Quatuor Diotima---
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Premiere: April 29th, 2019 (Noirlac, France)
Recording performance: December 17th, 2019
Performed by: Cuarteto Abreu
Venue: La Scène nationale d'Orléans, France

All rights reserved © Andreas Tsiartas/ GEMA 2020

String Quartet Nr. 2 'Átractos' (2019)

Andreas Tsiartas
ANAPALMÓS for solo clarinet
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Premiere: February 4, 2020 
Performed by: Jérôme Comte
Venue: University of York, U.K.
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-Dedicated to Jérôme Comte-
Anapalmós (Greek αναπαλμός) is a literary word, denoting pulse, oscillation, agitation that upheaves, and it describes, in a kind of an Aristotelian manner, the etherical state of vibration. It is the energy of the oscillation, and not the oscillation itself: the libration of the soul in excitement, in lust, but also in a religious, Dionysian ecstasy as it was manifested in antiquity. The word can also signify the perpetual movement of the sea’s deepest currents, or the radiating light of the distant stars, arriving on earth in oscillation. This is the same energy that creates life, from the smallest seed oscillating in the ground to be born towards sunlight, to the union of male and female to create the first cells of human life: In any event, at first comes the energy of the oscillation and then its materialisation – in perpetual palpitation. Anapalmós entails a subtleness, a secrecy, a retreat that lies within and its derivative word, anápalsis (Gr. ανάπαλσις), probably gave the word pulse to the West. 

All rights reserved © Andreas Tsiartas/ GEMA 2020

Anapalmós (2020) for solo clarinet

Cyprus-born Andreas Tsiartas is a graduate of the Hochschule für Musik ‘Carl Maria von Weber’ in Dresden, Germany, where he had studied composition with Manos Tsangaris and Jörg Herchet (Diplom Komponist). He completed his PhD studies in Music by composition at the University of York, UK under the supervision of Thomas Simaku, with full scholarship from the prestigious A. S. Onassis Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation (2017-2021). He has enriched his training at important festivals, seminars, and courses, including the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt and Academy Quatuor Diotima in L’ Abbaye de Noirlac, and distinguished composers such as Beat Furrer, Rebecca Saunders, Brian Ferneyhough, Peter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher, and Joshua Fineberg.

Tsiartas’ works have been performed / commissioned by such renowned ensembles and soloists as Dresdner Philharmonie, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Talea Ensemble, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Rohan de Saram, Sarah Aristidou, Musiques Nouvelles, Studio for New Music Ensemble Moscow, Johanna Vargas, Ergon Ensemble, amongst many others.

Having devised a new compositional approach, the Sound Ritual, Andreas Tsiartas explores the effects of sound in hypothetical acoustic sacred spaces (aural architecture), and in correlation with memory and oblivion, time and perpetuity. He delves into these notions through the application of new composite harmonic/ pitch structures based on the maqam music system of the Near East music traditions, as well as through the experimentation with new forms based on theoretical physics, natural philosophy, cosmology, and shamanism. 

A significant selection of Tsiartas’ compositions is published by BabelScores. He is the first Cypriot composer to be selected for publication on the platform. In 2019, Tsiartas was a First Prize winner at the DYCE (Discovering Young Composers of Europe) competition, for his work Pnoé for chamber ensemble, which was performed in Oslo’s Sentralen by the Cikada Ensemble under the direction of Christian Eggen. Subsequently, his work Ìérkos, commissioned by DYCE, received its world premiere at Espacio Turina in Sevilla, Spain by Taller Sonoro, with ensuing performances by the Divertimento Ensemble under the direction of Sandro Gorli in Milan, the Cikada Ensemble in Norway, and Ensemble U: in Estonia. The work was released on CD in 2021 by the Stradivarius label. For 2024/25 he was selected for the composition commissioning programme of the Greek National Opera: his new work Vorvópila for mezzo and string quartet was premiered in October 2025 at the Alternative Stage at Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation in Athens.
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 In October 2023, his work Lamento Turco was featured in Sarah Aristidou’s album, Enigma, released by Alpha Classics, and recently awarded with the German Record Critics’ Prize. In April 2024, his name was featured in Maurizio Colasanti’s book 101 compositori contemporanei che non potete non conoscere (101 contemporary composers you should know), published by Giacovelli editions, Italy.
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Andreas Tsiartas is currently working as a scientific collaborator at the Department of Arts of the European University Cyprus, and he has directed a number of composition seminars and workshops for leading academic institutions, such as the University of Nicosia, and the Open University in Crete, Greece.

Andreas Tsiartas

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