Antoniou, Theodore

Antoniou, Theodore, Greek-American composer, conductor, and teacher; b. Athens, Feb. 10, 1935. He studied in Athens at the National Cons, (violin and voice, 1947–58), with Manolis Kalomiris (composition), and at the Hellenic Cons, (composition and orchestration with Yannis Papaioannou, 1958–61). He then went to Munich and was a student of Günter Bialas and Adolph Mennerich (composition and conducting) at the Hochschule für Musik (1961–65), and also of Anton Riedl at the Siemens Studio for Electronic Music. He also attended the summer courses in new music in Darmstadt (1963–66). In 1967 he became music director of the Municipality of Athens Sym. Orch. and of the Hellenic Group of Contemporary Music. In 1968 he was in Berlin under the auspices of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. He was composer-in-residence at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (summer, 1969), Stanford Univ. (1969–70), and the Univ. of Utah (1970–72). From 1970 to 1978 he was prof. of composition and director of the New Music Group of the Philadelphia Coll. of the Performing Arts. He also was conductor of the Philadelphia Musical Academy Sym. Orch. (1971–75) and asst. director of contemporary activities at Tanglewood (summers, 1974–85). In 1978 he became prof. of composition and founder-music director of its contemporary music ensemble Alea III, with which he has programmed over 800 scores by some 500 composers. He was the recipient of the Greek Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 1997 for his manifold contributions to contemporary music. Antoniou’s early music is remarkably compendious in its integration of quaquaversal layers of sound. Folk elements in Greek modalities are also in evidence, and many of his titles have Greek philosophic or literary connotations. His later style developed to embrace a modified serialism and, in addition, a personal use of free tonality and free atonality. His music is highly dramatic and often virtuosic.