Karakasis George Composer, Conductor, Musicologist, Professor of Advanced Theory.
He graduated from the Department of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2008. He studied at OBE (Conservatory of Northern Greece) advanced theory and Composition (excellent unanimously). He received a degree in Organizing from the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki and took conducting lessons with the Conductor Karolos Trikolidis (letter of recommendation).
He holds the position of Chief Musician and Conductor in the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Paionia and in the choir of “Saint Raphael “of Meteora, Thessaloniki since 2009. He is the conductor of the two small symphony orchestras’ ‘ New Generation “and” Mozartakia “of OBE (Conservatory of Northern Greece) since 2013 and of the large symphonic orchestra of OBE since 2019.
He has been the artistic director of the Dimiourgon Odeio-AMS (About Music Studios and Lessons) since 2017 and of the Municipal Conservatory of Paionia in Kilkis since 2020. He is in charge of the music department at the Cultural Association of Lagyna from 2017 until today.
He teaches at the – AMS Music school and at the Conservatory of Northern Greece advanced theory, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, composition, organization, orchestration, conducting and has worked in primary and secondary education as an associate professor of music.
He was a conductor in the jazz symphonic orchestra of Northern Greece from 2013 to 2016 and chief musician in the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Menemeni from 2008 to 2011. He was a professor and head of the theoretical department at MMF Northern Greece Academy from 2014 to 2017. The years 2015-19 was in charge of the Department of Traditional, Folk and Byzantine music of OBE.
He has won awards in composition competitions and several concerts with his works for solo instruments, chamber music, vocal music, choral, orchestral, film music and children’s operas, in classical, traditional, jazz and modern style (since 2003).
Bibliography:
- “Musical Alphabet World”, (2015 Cambia publications). Works for piano in a modern style. The purpose of the book is to bring young musicians closer to contemporary atonic music.
- “Music theory, notation and analysis in the tonal system” (2017 Cambia publications). Music theory book for the three years of study.
- “526 theory exercises” (2018 Cambia publications). Based on the book “Theory of music, notation and analysis in the tonal system”.
- “Six traditional dances of western Macedonia”, (2019 Cambia publications). Traditional dances for piano with classical and jazz elements.
- “Localities and colors”, (2020 Cambia editions). 29 traditional songs from all over Greece for Acapella Mixed Choir and piano.
Discography:
- Performer at Synthesizer on the album “Dreams are forbidden here” by the band Mariners by Marco Polo.
- Performer on classical percussion in the recording of the AUTh symphonic orchestra in the work of the composer Hatzileontiadis “Confess” in 2007.
- Orchestration to the song “From now to general” on the album “August inside me” by singer G. Fanara. Music: G. Fanaras, Lyrics: Ch. Papazoglou, production 2015.
- Works, orchestration / orchestra conducting, live recordings on the CD “7th music month”. In the context of events for the 75 years of the Conservatory of Northern Greece. Performers: Saint Rafael Meteoron Thessaloniki, Orchestra of Traditional & Folk Music of the Conservatory of Northern Greece, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Northern Greece, Fotis Koutsothodoros, Ismini Giannaki, Theofilos Sotiriadis, Kostas Anastasiadis, Petros Dragoumis and many others traditional musicians and performers.
Production Conservatory of Northern Greece 2017
- “Anoikse Eleni ” From the book “Six traditional dances of western Macedonia” for piano. Performer: Ilias Tachtsidis. The production took place at AMS Studios and is released on the online Baby CD.
