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Stratis Minakakis

p, *1979 GB
Musician / Composer / Conductor
A.k.a. Efstratios Minakakis (Ευστράτιος Μηνακάκης)

Stratis Minakakis (b. 1979) is a Greek-American composer and conductor. He studied piano, music theory, and composition at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude, and later acquired his master's degree from New England Conservatory Of Music, and Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. Minakakis lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and teaches music theory and composition at New England Conservatory. As a composer, Stratis has collaborated with leading performers and ensembles across Europe, North America, and Japan, such as The Crossing (3) choir, PRISM Quartet and Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Partch ensemble, Arditti Quartet, recorder virtuoso Tosiya Suzuki, and conductor Donald Nally. As a conductor, Stratis Minakakis is particularly interested in early Modernism and works of Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti; he has directed numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras in contemporary repertoire: Milton Babbitt, Henri Dutilleux, John Mallia, Katarina Miljković, Yannis A. Papaioannou, Dimitris Minakakis, Joan Arnau Pamiès, Katherine Balch, Fabien Levy, and Eric Maestri. Minakakis regularly works with Notariatous, a Boston-based ensemble specializing in microtonal music, as well as Alea III, the ensemble-in-residence at Boston University. Minakakis is an active researcher in the field of music theory. His recent work, focused on Ludwig van Beethoven's late string quartets, is based on pioneering research by violinist Nicholas Kitchen on the expressive markings and articulations of Beethoven manuscripts. On a broader scale, the composer is interested in memory, breath and vocality, ancient and modern Greek texts, self-generating systems, complex symmetries, rule-based transformative processes, and the introspective exploration of language.

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