Georges Aperghis

Georges Aperghis was born in Athens in 1945. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1963. A questioning about languages and their meaning notably characterise his work. His compositions, whether instrumental, vocal or for stage, explore the borders of the intelligible. He likes to create twisted tracks, which allow him to keep active the listener (he let stories emerge and suddenly refutes them).

Aperghis’ music is not strictly linked to any dominant musical aesthetics of the contemporary musical creation but follows on his century by a dialogue with other forms of art and an extreme open-mindedness to the other. Aperghis combines this otherness with innovation when he includes electronics, video, machines, automatons or robots to his performances. He works closely with group of interpreters who are entirely part of the creative process. They are comedians (Edith Scob, Michael Lonsdale, Valérie Dréville, Jos Houben), instrumentalists (Jean-Pierre Drouet, Richard Dubelski, Geneviève Strosser, Nicolas Hodges, Uli Fussenegger) or vocalists (Martine Viard, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Lionel Peintre). From the 90’s he shared new artistic collaborations with danse (Johanne Saunier, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) and visual arts (Daniel Lévy, Kurt D’Haeseleer, Hans Op de Beeck). The main European contemporary music ensembles have developed a working relationship with Aperghis through settled commissions that are now part of their repertory (Ictus, Klangforum Wien, Remix Ensemble, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Mordern, Ensemble intercontemporain, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR Vokalensemble).

Georges Aperghis was guest at the Berliner Festspiele as part of MaerzMusik - Festival für Zeitfragen in 2015 and 2018. Most recently, visitors to the Musikfest Berlin 2020 were able to experience the performance of "Le Cour de la vie".

www.aperghis.com

As of January 2022