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ARIS CARASTATHIS was born in Athens, Greece, in 1957. He received his early musical training at Attica Conservatory in Athens, Greece and completed his Bachelor and Master degrees in music at the University of Northern Iowa. He graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University in 1988. Carastathis is an Associate Professor of Theory/Composition and Director of the New Music Ensemble at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario. He is an Associate Composer and Voting Member of the Canadian Music Centre, as well as Vice President and Artistic Director of New Music North. He was Chair of the Canadian University Music Society Standing Committee of Institutional Members (1999-2001) and Chair of the Lakehead University Department of Music (1994-2001).

Carastathis’s first acknowledged work, Four Songs for soprano and piano, dates from 1979 and he has since produced more than seventy works for a wide variety of media, from symphonic to chamber as well as electronic music. Carastathis’ works have been performed in Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Poland, and the U.S., including performances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York. His music has been broadcast on American (PBS) and Canadian (CBC) radio. He has received commissions from the Canadian Music Centre, Music Canada 2000 Festival Inc., Algoma Fall Festival, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Acadia Trio, Louisiana State University New Music Ensemble, Louisiana Composers’ Guild, and Baton Rouge Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Carastathis’s works are published by Conners Publications, Natchitoches, Louisiana and Acoma/Nambe Editions, Toronto.

Aris Carastathis’s compositional style has gone through various transformations. Early works are strictly atonal with heavy emphasis on serial models. Newer works display a mixture of atonal and tonal idioms with an underlying modal quality. Conventional harmonies coexist with, emerge from or result to pitch mass sonorities. Counterpoint of instrumental timbres play an important role in all of the composer’s orchestral works. Carastathis favours non-symmetrical rhythmic designs with abrupt dynamic changes and extensive use of syncopation. Folk elements often appear in his more recent works. His latest interests include integration of electroacoustic composition and computer art/animation.
 

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