CCi Artists

NIKOS SHALKOTTAS

Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949) composed more than 170 works during his 25 year career, but his music was almost totally unknown during his own lifetime. Born in Greece to a family of musicians, Skalkottas was a child prodigy and eventually left his homeland to study in Berlin, where his major composition teachers were Phillipp Jarnach (1925-27) and Arnold Schoenberg (1927-31). Both teachers thought highly of him, and Schoenberg later, in Style and Idea, listed Skalkottas
as among the ten best students he had ever had.
As the horrors of Nazisim arose in Germany, Skalkottas chose to return to his homeland. There, he developed a personal style featuring non-serial atonality and formal structures operating at multiple concurrent levels. Unfortunately, his countrymen found his non-tonal style incomprehensible, and he was eventually forced to make a living as one of the last violins in the State Orchestra of Athens. Most of his creative output was discovered after his death, and his work is still quite new to many of today's listeners.

Record Label : BIS
Other Related Links:

Buy from Amazon.com

Back to the main CCi Artists

Last Update 03/15/2007