The title NEuripides merges “Neuron” and “Euripides,” reflecting both the technical method behind the composition and its aesthetic resonance. The piece is generated using an artificial neural network composed of four neurons - a minimal AI system that produces layered sonic gestures throughout the training process. These gestures, often repetitive and evolving, evoke the presence of an ancient Greek chorus: collective, ritualistic, and emotionally charged.

At the same time, the textures and timbres of NEuripides are deeply rooted in the contemporary world. They echo the spectral fragments that define our current sonic environment - from urban infrastructure to data flows and media noise. In this way, NEuripides becomes a dialogue between ancient voice and artificial system, memory and code, evoking how the echoes of the past can still speak through the networks of today.

NEuripides was first performed as a 4-channel fixed media work in Hannover Musik Hochschule in Kammermusiksaal Uhlemeyerstr as part of the exchange program between MIAM and HMTMH. 28/06/2025, 7:30pm.


NEuripides, for 4-channel fixed media (2025)

How can form  evolve under a nowadays psychological framework? Is it more difficult to compose long or short pieces and is there any morality in it that serves as a proof of the composer’s skills? My musical interests are focused on a personal composition method that started from my late integrated masters years in Thessaloniki and which eventually was the subject of my PhD research in York. It used to serve as a preliminary stage for an instrumental composition; however, since 2017 the “Selective Subtraction of tone and rhythmic material” composition technique serves as a tool to create but mostly to sculpt the tone and rhythmic material of the instruments that will interweave with the electronics. As its name signifies it is based on a subtractionprocess that gives a certain amount of material. This material forms the basis for an evolutionary process where finally, all these elements are combined in order to give the final piece. Under the scope of electronics it incorporates computational methods like Csound software, Ableton Live and MaxMasp (Sound Synthesis private patch library) in the direction of finding new ways of pattern development and thus evolution of the form.

For examples of the Selective Subtraction of tone and rhythmic material” composition technique enter here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/alutmo3h0ue30ec/AAC-LmZExoUMBr6lVgabz1YOa?dl=0

Sound Synthesis private maxmsp library: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvxYMmv9_S-sgfRtKB-Vq4t2l1PE_g?e=o8BN6A 

PhD thesis: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20111/
Website: https://manolisekmektsoglousite.wordpress.com/
email: ekmektsoglou8@gmail.com 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Manolis Ekmektsoglou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied composition at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, with Dimitri Papageorgiou and in the University of York, UK (PhD) with Thomas Simaku. He also spent a year at Hannover Musikhochschule studying acoustic and electronic music with Joachim Heintz, Gordon Williamson and Ming Tsao. He is an Assistant Professor of Instrumental and Electronic/Computer music Composition at İTÜ, Center for Advanced Study in Music (M.I.A.M.).

Manolis participated in the “Labor Beethoven 2017-2020” project, funded and organized by the Berlin Academy of the Arts. He received the third prize in the Karol Szymanowski composition competition 2023 with the work Motion, in Two, for solo violin.

His pieces have been performed by many ensembles in several festivals in many countries such as Greece (OutHear Week, DissonArt ensemble, Off Borders Festival), Germany (Neues Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Earth, Sky, Space festival, Hitzacker 2018), Italy (Soundiff project), Turkey (MIAM 20 year-Gala), Iran (Reza Korourian Awards electroacoustic music festival 2017), Hong Kong (AMGA ensemble) Spain (Mixtur festival 2016), Austria (NAMES ensemble, Synaesthesis ensemble, Crossroads festival, KUG), the UK (Resonance FM 104.4, Kinetic nights festival, Manchester, Gallois trio, Diotima Quartet, Psappha ensemble, Resonance FM, RNM Call 2022), France (Viberation#2, Réseau inDREAM Network), the USA (MISE-EN festival, NYCEMF, Impulse festival 2024), Argentina (Atemporánea festival 2022), Romania (EELISA 1st conference, 2023) and Switzerland (UMS n’ JIP).

An upcoming publication by Manolis in the MIT Computer Music Journal (Volume 48, Issue 4) explores the impact of emerging AI technologies on music composition and performance. It also proposes an alternative approach to generating textural and timbral transformations in mixed-media composition through the use of a dynamically trained neuron.

Musical Practices in the Contemporary World is his first book, where he tries to sum up what has happened in New Music after the 70s, making meaningful connections with the past and providing suggestions from contemporary repertoire. 


For a detailed CV follow this link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ph47cs1c2geuni87r4yhp/CV.pdf?rlkey=eejehdl2u0fc9kgdxcenlhsij&st=6rjxtt9z&dl=0