Elena Pavlea - Composer

Elena Pavlea - Composer, Pianist, Music Teacher and Pedagogue

She was born in Athens on June 24, 1983, where she started piano lessons at the age of 7.

Her first contact with composition began at the age of 8 when she composed her first piano pieces. Improvisation has always been the key to music creation and her musical style varies. Her music has been characterized as neo-romantic and minimalist while Corin Nelson-Smith from Expressive Audio writes: ''Whilst her primary musical influences are Neo-romantic and Minimalist styles, Pavlea has composed for film, dance, and even in collaboration with poets, artists and sculptors, so it would be a discredit to the breadth of Pavlea's compositional output to constrain it to just two genres''.

Education

She studied piano and theory at the Max Hallecker Conservatory where she graduated with a Piano Diploma with Excellence under the supervision of Professor Yiannis Hallecker.

While she was studying Musicology and Philosophy at the American College of Greece (Deree) from which she graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts, she was Dimitris Toufexis’s piano student. She went on to postgraduate studies at City University and Guildhall School of Music and Drama (joint programme) and graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Performance under Professor Peter Bithell.

During her stay in London, she taught piano and theory under the ABRSM programme (The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) at the Shine Music School.

She holds the degrees in Harmony (Erateio Conservatory under professor Dimitris Karavelis) in Counterpoint (Music Association of Athens Conservatory under professor Yiannis Avgerinos) while she is currently pursuing further studies in Fugue, Orchestration and Composition under professor Yannis Avgerinos. Currently, she is studying Orchestral Conducting at the Alfa Conservatory with conductor Lukas Karytinos.

Seminars

She attended numerous masterclasses taught by the pianist Dimitris Toufexis and has participated in masterclasses by Giorgos - Emmanouil Lazaridis, Peter Nagy and Alberto Portugheis at the Steinway Hall in London. She has also participated in and attended conferences and seminars in composition, in the Kodaly music pedagogy method, in orchestral and choral conducting and in teaching the ABRSM. She has also participated in numerous seminars on Music Aesthetics, Historical Musicology and Philosophy in Greece and abroad.

Compositions - Concerts

Today she deals professionally with composition and much of her music has been written collaboratively with film directors, video artists, choreographers, sculptors, painters, and poets. In her own words: ‘’Music can be found in words, in gestures, in images and objects and can create a whole world by itself – or enhance an existing visual narrative where it already exists’’. Among several others, she wrote music for the 2009 documentary Wind Dancer - the story of Shona Dunlop MacTavish by Wiebke F. Hendry and Lloyd Spencer Davis, shot in New Zealand, for the award-winning (at the Greek-London Film Festival) silent short film Sleepwalker by Jim Zogas. She also wrote music for the video art and opening exhibition of paintings at the Tzima Gallery in Kifissia entitled Visual Echoes, as well as for the film Rainy Days by the director Alessandro Spiliotopulos.

In December 2014, she completed the presentation of compositions aimed at bringing together the arts and collaborated with the visual artist Panagiotis S. Papadopoulos in the exhibition and film by Alessandro Spilitiopulos entitled Karpon Spondi presented at the Gallery Lefakis in Glyfada. In April 2015, she presented her works for chamber music ensemble at the Philippos Nakas conservatory at the event entitled Laissez Vibrer organized by the composer and professor Dimitris Karavelis. In December 2016, she performed her composition Blue - Sky Reverie for the first time with the string quartet L'anima, at the Erateio Conservatory in a concert entitled Classic Wineries.

In the Spring of 2019, she gave a series of concerts dedicated to the music of the film Rainy Days by Alessandro Spiliotopulos where she presented her musical and orchestral works along with Alkmini Hadjinassiou and the mezzo-soprano Marisia Papalexiou, at the Hadjivei School dedicated to The People of Love Association, in the municipality of Nea Philadelphia and N. Chalkidona in the World Cultural Foundation of Hellenism and Diaspora, in the auditorium of the Folklore Museum of Arachova, in the municipality of Livadeon and in the KEMME institution of N. Erithrea.

In the summer of 2019, she presented her compositions based on Greek poetry and performed by the mezzo-soprano Marisia Papalexiou and the singer Alkmini Hadjinassiou at the Vrachon Theater ‘’Anna Sinodinou’’ along with the Ioanna Syngelakis Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Panagiotis Vlachos in a concert which was dedicated to the homeless and was organized by the Vyronas Municipality.

In 2020, she presented her orchestral compositions with the Ert Contemporary Music Orchestra under the direction of Andreas Pylarinos, which was broadcast live. In 2021, she wrote the music performed by the mezzo-soprano Ioanna Vrakatseli, for the short film – videoclip entitled Nike of Samothrace – The Return, directed by Prokopis Dafnos.

In the summer of 2021, her first album entitled The Shape of Freedom was recorded at Turner Sims in Southampton England, with conductor Simon Chalk and the Southern Sinfonia Orchestra with the participation of the London Piano Trio and mezzo-soprano April Frederick.

In April 2022, the official presentation of her first album entitled The Shape of Freedom took place in London at the School of Philosophy and Economic Science with performers of the London Piano Trio, while the same album was presented along with the presentation of the albums of Natalie Tsaldarakis and Panagiotis Archontides of the Ivory Piano Duo Ensemble at the Athens Megaron Concert Hall in Lilian Voudouri library, under the title Greek Artists of Convivium Records in May.

Her pieces have been heard several times on the Second Programme of the Hellenic Radio (Ert) and on Australia's ABC Classic FM radio station. They have also been heard during Yiannis Papoutsakis’s show - The Voice of Greece -, Katia Kallitsounaki’s show - Musical Moments in Time -, Giulietta Karori’s show - and during Ek Gyinaikos Ta Kreitto - on the Third Programme of Ert. Recently, she was a guest of Christos Papageorgiou in the show ''Looking for the Lady with Strychnine'' where she presented pieces from her first album. She was also a guest of Nikos Xanthoulis in the show – The Whole World a…Lyrical Stage’’ in the third programme of Ert.

It is worth noting that in several of her concerts, in addition to the role of the composer, she has also the role of the performer. In her future projects, she will be participating in the concert and album presentation of the violinist Lisa Archontides – Tsaldarakis where she will be composing music for four hands, violin, and mezzo soprano. The concert will be dedicated to the memory of Manolis Kalomiris and performed by the Ivory Piano Duo Ensemble together with Lisa Archontides – Tsaldarakis.

Teaching

She teaches piano and theory and she is a music pedagogue and educator in all levels of education.

In reference, she taught theory and piano under the ABRSM programme (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) at the Erateio Conservatory for 6 years. She was also a music teacher at the Kalandrou School in Pallini, while in the year 2016-2018, she was a PYP Music Teacher at the International School of Athens (ISA). She has collaborated with several English-speaking and Greek-speaking schools in Athens, such as the Pinelopio Foundation, the Learning Steps Montessori School in Kifissia and Polytropi Armonia schools in Elliniko and Haidari where she still works as a secondary music education teacher.

Awards

Her music has been awarded first prizes at the international Donne in Musica competition in Serbia, 3 times, also in the Chamber Music Composition and Music for Solo Instrument categories in 2015 and 2018. She has also received second and first prizes from the Interartia Music Festival of Volos. Finally, she has been honored by the municipality of Vyronas for her social contribution to music and to the Basic Goods Supply Structures Programme.

Discography

England's Convivium Records has just released her first solo album of solo piano and orchestral compositions as well as chamber music entitled The Shape of Freedom.

Since July 2022, the composer is represented worldwide by MUSICENTRY.

Critics

''An impressive showcase of Pavlea's compositional skills...her motif writing in particular shines through''

Corin Nelson - Smith – music critic (expressive audio) https://conviviumrecords.co.uk/label-reviews/cr068-expressive-audio/

"...beautiful writing that reminds me of no other composer. Here, my girl, you externalize so beautifully and unnecessarily what you have inside, miraculously ignoring a century of many fruitless experiments. I don't know if I succeeded, but I enjoyed it, trying to Greekize the imaginative titles of the parts. Congratulations! ''

Giorgos Leotsakos – Musicologist, Music critic (critic's point) https://critics-point.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/48.kouarte-lanima.pdf

"Elena Pavlea, with her excellent record work "The Shape of Freedom" recorded in Southampton, England, gave us samples of her undeniable talent and took us on a journey to dreams, to the magic of music, to freedom! Her compositions are full of light, images, gentleness and high sensitivity. Each of her compositions is a touch of the soul, a journey to its bright places, where the tears of God join those of people. Her melodies are dreamy, velvety, cinematic. You close your eyes and let yourself be drawn into her own universe, her own musical galaxy''.

Yannis Papoutsakis – Poet and Author, Journalist, Radio Producer (Second Program of ERT)

‘’Elena Pavlea is that special kind of musician who through her compositions surpasses the conventional procedure followed to provide a simple ‘musical accompaniment’ for the needs of an artistic event, as is shown this evening in this artistic happening with the title Καρπών Σπονδή.

Both lyrical and sentimental, this music at times possesses mild tones of a post-Romantic style and is driven throughout by the sense of an intense personal inquiry, while at other moments it becomes a symbolic dithyrambic ritual, absolutely related to the exhibition’s title; at other times a persistent, minimalist, introverted and inner dialogue is presented, with its main characteristic being those elements of the dialectical relationship between humanity and nature.

Characterised by these elements, we would say that even from the first listening, Pavlea’s music moves us and creates a uniqueness of sound that manages to conjure up to a member of the audience, and any listener of this special artistic activity, images, movements, figures, and generally a poetic aura, all characteristics worthy of admiration for this young and very promising artist’’.

Dimitris Karavelis - Musicologist - Composer - Pianist (on the musical compositions of Elena Pavlea from the 2014 exhibition at the Galerie Lefakis)

I was very happy to listen to the first CD 'The shape of freedom' by the composer Elena Pavlea. It is an expressive piece of music that could be the soundtrack of a film with idealistic, emotional content. Wonderful, soulful melodies expressed in a neo-romantic style that sometimes connect monophonically and sometimes polyphonically.

An imaginative piece of music with a nice orchestration that sounds delightful. Congratulations to the composer!

We expect much more in the future.

Spyros Mazis, Ph.D - Composer