The Cup of Agony (Recitative and Aria) from my opera Cassandra, which is being created for premier in 2013. This one-woman opera is based on the enigmatic character Cassandra from Greek mythology, including the Iliad and the Oresteia. Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam of Troy and the High Priestess of Athena, has the gift of prophecy, but a curse from Apollo that no one will believe her. This scene takes place in the palace of Agamemnon, where she is brought as a slave after the fall of Troy.

Cassandra is a project which i have been wanting to undertake for many years. Her temptation, empowerment, descent into madness, and eventual destruction make her the perfect subject for a one-act, one-woman contemporary opera.

The monodrama’s structure will be based on both Ancient Greek tragedy and the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Mysteries were ritual ceremonies that gave birth to the concept of the individual as distinct from society; they also served as the basis of Greek drama. The opera will use contemporary multimedia theater to achieve the same effect as Ancient Greek drama and ritual, which sought to stimulate all of the participants’ senses. This multimedia performance will allow the onstage transformation of Cassandra to have a transformative effect on the audience. The idea of Jungian archetype and meaning of ritual play a central role in this transformation.

Cassandra must be a transformative experience. Our challenge is to use today’s technology and the techniques of contemporary art to bring about a ‘ritual’ (in the sense of a transformative experience) that evokes ancient times yet is evidently relevant to the challenges of everyday contemporary life. Through her burden of suffering, Cassandra will present the audience a chance to transcend spiritual or psychological constraints of contemporary life. Cassandra, in this way, will serve as a catalyst for the transformation of the audience

Jacquelyn Familant, soprano
Demetrius Spaneas, composer and saxophone
Adam Blanshay, director
Kate Light, libretto
Danny Bonner, camera and post production

It’s official!

My new CD, Sfumato, has been released!

This recording is a series of meditative duo improvisations with Russian Medieval/Byzantine-style vocalist Galina Parfenova. I will present a solo performance and reception on February 21 to mark the release. I am also happy that I am presenting this in my home town of Lowell, MA. Reception begins at 4PM, with the performance starting around 4:30.

One very important aspect of this recording is that I am not only the performing artist and composer on this CD, but I am also the producer, the publisher, and I have created my own record label, DSM (dspaneasmusic)–in which this is the first release, DSM-01–that will solely be an outlet for my own creative endeavors.

It was a lot of work, but very satisfying!

The CD is now available on digstation, CD Baby, and iTunes. Amazon and downloadable ring-tones available soon!

Once the whirlwind of this weekend is over, I will have all of the CD information up on this website–sooner rather than later!

As serendipity would have it, on the following day, February 22, I will be a special guest of both Middlesex Community College and Lowell High School. I will give a talk/presentation about myself and my career to LHS students. This special program is organized through Middlesex Community College. Below is a description of the program:

The Middlesex Community College Music Outreach Program started 5 years ago.  Our goal is to present high quality musical events which go beyond the normal school music curriculum for Lowell area high school students. These have included concerts, lectures, demonstrations and workshops presented by professional musicians of the highest caliber, including members of the Boston Symphony, as well as MCC faculty.  Lecture/concerts are presented in the Assembly Room of the newly renovated Federal Building on E. Merrimack St.

This is exciting for me! As any of you who have followed my travels know, I love giving these types of talks…not to talk about ME, per se, but to talk to students who may be interested in pursuing a career in music. I will tell them the truth…both the good and the bad, the happiness and the frustration, the elation and the devastation. The ones who are serious will hopefully understand…others, well, others may not be ready to hear quite that intense of a message.

Also, it’s important for me in these talks to discuss other cultures and how the US is looked upon internationally. I will also tell them the issues that I have personality encountered as an American traveling into less than friendly regions of the world. Again, many may not understand the weight of such issues, but the ones who are ready will listen, and begin to understand.

It’s always an issue what to tell someone who wants to pursue a career in the arts, to major in it at college. It’s a difficult call; usually, I would tell someone that if they can do something else, anything else, do it…

…the problem is when you can’t do anything else. I’m not talking about skills here…I’m talking spiritually. If your soul will not allow anything else, then you have no choice…you must. If it can allow other possibilities, then don’t do it. This is the issue that most young people don’t understand until it’s sometimes too late. They liked singing or playing in a band in high school, and then think that they’ll do this only, usually with very poor guidance from teachers and mentors…they have no real understanding of what they need to do, or what will be expected of them.

They also have no idea what they’re getting into…

This is where these talks are helpful. Young people can ask questions…this is where I can be of best service to them. They have to understand that most of what they know about the career, about the economy, about music education at the high school and college levels in the US, and about the reality of job opportunities are completely wrong.

It’s all about honesty, which is unfortunately something that young people don’t always get when being wooed by college programs or other types of–for lack of a better word–promoters.

But I’ll do my best for them–I have to.

One last thing–for those of you who are keeping score at home, I have decided to go back to my metal Otto Link 8 on tenor…‘The Cannon’, i. e., the Dukoff 10* is going back in the archives as a memento of a past life. We tried for a while–we were mutually exclusive for a month, but just decided that too much time had passed and we had drifted apart…

Actually, in all honesty, I like a lot of what the Dukoff brings in so far as power and edge, but the Link is overall the most complete mouthpiece. Well, that’s OK…I started on a Link, almost exclusively played on a Link until I was with the Funk Brothers (actually, I switched to the Dukoff when I played with Three Dog Night for some reason…). I mean, Coltrane played on a Link…you can’t get better than that.

Peace,
Demetrius

ps–I did go back to my bigger set-ups on clarinet and bass clarinet recently, but that’s a story for another time.

Through a joint sponsorship by the Hellenic Culture Society and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, I will present a concert of new solo, electroacoustic, and multimedia works by living Greek composers, including Michalis Adamis, Akis Daoutis, Nickos Harizanos, Marinos Koutsomichalis, and myself. The presentation will also include a discussion of my numerous Greek related projects, as well as my other international cultural initiatives.

To be held at the Media Center at O’Leary Library at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, April 26th, 2009 at 2PM.

Aeolian Windbag, his collaboration with composer Nickos Harizanos and film-maker Panayiotis Tsangas, featured at the MIR Festival, Athens, Greece, September 20, 2008.

ElectroMediaWorks Festival; Multimedia/laptop/film/electronics/electro-acoustic jam session; Athens, Greece

ElectroMediaWorks Festival; Multimedia solo concert, includes Natasha Bogojevich Balajica, Nickos Harizanos Aeolian Windbag, William Susman Native New Yorker, and my In Celebration of Sunrise; Athens, Greece

Ianis Xenakis Center for Creative Research, Athens, Greece; guest solo improvisational concert; will include improvisations on works by Harizanos, Jobim, and Spaneas (3 Interludes), a peformance of William Susman’s Waves for improv soloist and computer generated sounds, and an improvisation in noise with laptop

Ianis Xenakis Center for Creative Research, Athens, Greece; guest solo concert, music by Mantzoros, Fragistas, Harizanos, Manousakis, Mamangakis, Diktyopoulos, Daoutis, M. Adamis, G. Adamis, Koutsomichalis, and Deniozos