Demetrius Spaneas profile picture

Demetrius Spaneas

"The sound of water says what I think"-Chuang Tzu

About Me

Classical/Contemporary multi-wind soloist/composer/recording artist Demetrius Spaneas leads a varied career in both the New York City and Boston areas. He has commissioned, recorded, and premiered works by many major composers, including John Cage, John Harbison, Donald Martino, Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, Joan Tower, and many others. He currently has two solo recordings on Capstone Records, "When Wind Comes to Sparse Bamboo" (2003), and "From a Far-off World" (2006). His major interests include combining improvisation within classically structured forms, working with electronics and video, and world music. He has been a member of the Auros Group for New Music, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Harvard Group for New Music, as well as many other chamber and symphonic ensembles in the Northeast. In demand as a guest lecturer/performer of New Music, he has presented talks and concerts at Harvard University, the California Institute for the Arts, Tanglewood, and the New England Conservatory, as well as other music programs and venues. As a commercial performer, he has shared the stage with many top acts, including the Funk Brothers (featured soloist, 2005-06), Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and many others. He is also the founder and leader of the world music ensemble BALKANASIA, which combines music from the Balkans and Near East with jazz and rock, and the co-director of the New York based chamber group, the Sapphire Ensemble. Demetrius plays exclusively on Gonzales Reeds on clarinet and saxophone and as a composer is a member of ASCAP. Demetrius has been given the honor of being appointed Composer-in-Residence for the Bay Area Chamber Symphony, based in Oakland, CA. For the 2007-08 season, Demetrius will be living in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will be presenting concerts, lectures, and at festivals as both a performer and composer throughout Europe and Asia.Please see website for all upcoming perfomances.


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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/3/2006
Band Website: dspaneas.com
Band Members: Me on a variety of saxes, clarinets, flutes, recorders, and world music wind instruments.
Influences: Josquin, Mozart, Ives, Coltrane, Beatles, Talking Heads, Asian Music and Philosophy, Modern Art.
Record Label: Capstone (as soloist); Mode, Centaur, Canteloupe
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

2 November 2007

2 November 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, As I had feared, my time between traveling has been much shorter than realized; not in actual temporal figures, but in recovery. There h...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:08:00 PST

17-22 October 2007 (Greece)

17-22 October 2007 (Greece) Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, Athens. My most potent memory of Greece from my last visits over 2 decades ago was the most amazing aroma: a sweetness combi...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:38:00 PST

15-17 October 2007 (Serbia)

15-17 October 2007 (Serbia) Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, Belgrade is beautiful. It was a really quite a stark contrast to the constricted overpopulation of Sofia. As I was picked up...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:48:00 PST

10-15 October 2007 (Bulgaria)

10-15 October 2007 (Bulgaria) Mark Twain United States of America   Dear Mark, As you know, on the 10th of October I embarked on my Balkan journey. I was picked up at my apartment at 5AM in St. ...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:18:00 PST

9 October 2007

9 October 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, This will be my last letter for a couple of weeks. As you know, tomorrow morning-very early-I will be flying to Sofia to begin my tour of...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:07:00 PST

6 October 2007

6 October 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, Today's letter is going to be a little different. Mostly, I want to talk about education in the United States and here in Russia, since, ...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:15:00 PST

3 October 2007

3 October 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, The first week of festivals is over and done with-quite an experience in many, many ways. The concerts in St. Petersburg presented some a...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:12:00 PST

29 September 2007

29 September 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, Well, I have returned to St. Petersburg with many a story of success! To begin with, my first festival event here in St. Petersburg wa...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:22:00 PST

26 September 2007

26 September 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, As expected, the Festival week began with some great fanfare. We had a wonderful performance of SHARE at the club-there were, I believ...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:00:00 PST

23 September 2007

23 September 2007 Mark Twain United States of America Dear Mark, I apologize for the few days between letters. The last few days have been very busy with preparing for my first week of Festival perfo...
Posted by Demetrius Spaneas on Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:08:00 PST