TROUBADISC composers

biography

"I do not say: I am a composer, but I work as a composer." 
Dimitri Nicolau

Composer, stage director, conductor, musicologist and professor Dimitri Nicolau was born in Keratea, Greece in 1946 and became a naturalized citizen of Italy. He now resides and works in Rome. Besides his musical studies in Greece and in France he has conducted research in the vast field of popular music with a particular focus on the Mediterranean and Balkans.

In 1967 his opposition to the regime of the Greek colonels enabled him to receive political asylum from Italy. As a graduate of cinematography in the Experimental Center of Cinematography in Rome (C.S.C.) he has practiced this profession for some years without interrupting his composition work. He has frequented the Faculty of Modern Letters at the Rome University. Fundamental for his artistic development is the relationship with the theory and Collective Analysis of Massimo Fagioli. He has dedicated many years to education as a teacher of stage song and vocal theatrical techniques and as a composer of original music at the Institute of Ancient Drama (INDA) of Syracuse, the Theatrical Academy of Calabria, the Theater Calabria, to name a few.

Starting in 1959, when he began to compose and perform his compositions publicly, his catalogue today comprises more than 270 compositions including 3 operas, 5 symphonies for large orchestras, numerous concerts for soloist and orchestra, many works for plucked string orchestras, soloist and ensembles, works for chamber ensemble, many works for voice, two cantatas for soloist, choir, actors and large orchestra and ballet music. Furthermore, he has composed soundtracks for cinema, television and radio, music and songs for children and over 100 scores for the prose theater; from 1996 to 2001 he collaborated with the theatrical company "La Bottega del Pane".

His music exploits with the touch of a master each instrument's (or voice's) potential, often employing most unusual tone and playing techniques. Many of his works show an intense theatrical quality. His works have been performed at many musical centers and festivals throughout Europe, North Africa, the US, Canada, Japan and Italy.

The composer died on March, 29th 2008, Creta, Greece.
 

"The most original element of popular music is the one that is least seen: receiving the vital lymph, the secret, and letting it live in me, without vivisecting it, without enveloping it with rationality. The changeability and the asymmetry caused by long passages of phrases, phrase rhythm, a rhythmic melody, a melody rhythm. Stravinsky bends the rhythm of music, but rhythm must obey the articulation of the melodic line and its curve ..."    Dimitri Nicolau

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http://www.dimitrinicolau.it  

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