CAVE
Composer Haukur Þór HarðarsonLibrettist Sophie Fetokaki
with Arabic text translated by Céline Skaf and Haia Dakwar
Premiere Deutsche Oper Berlin April 2025 with:
Conductor Samuel Beluzán Rodríguez
Director Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg
Dramaturgie Pia Syrbe
Video artist Gaetan Langlois-Meurinne
Video raw material Nicola Mitropoulou
H Jüntao Ye
A' Benjamin Guilbaud
A'' Duangamorn Fu
A''' Shuchen Dai
And students of Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
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Whiteness and Sound Studies, a series of online talks I curated and hosted, featuring artists and scholars exploring whiteness, racialisation and coloniality in sonic theory and practice. The series is co-hosted by the Centre for Experimental Practices at the University of Huddersfield and University of the Arts, Helsinki.
Resource list
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Μουσικός Περίπατος στη Βάβλα / Musical Promenade in Vavla took place in the mountainous village of Vavla in the Larnaka district of Cyprus. I co-produced and co-curated this festival with other community members, and also performed songs of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands with Veronika Aloneftou and Elena Xyda.
The event included seven acts performing in traditional houses, courtyards and stone-paved streets of the village, followed by a DJ set in the centre of the village, with various homemade local products on sale. It also involved an art exhibition by local painter Paskalis Anastasi, whose painting “Vavla Village, Morning Light” is featured in the poster and brochure.
The event was held under the auspices of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture as part of the 2023 Cultural Decentralisation Program, with additional support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment.
Graphic design by Popi Pissouriou
Photos by Panayiotis Mina
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Video of Appalachian ballad ‘Pretty Saro’ at Sage Gateshead artist residency:
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Sage Gateshead residency announcement
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From 2020-2021 I was the performance doula for this project at Momentum Theatre in Odense, Denmark. Among the many things that emerged from this project was this durational, open form, installation-performance called På Jorden (On Earth).
Team: Monia Sander (director), Marius Ursu, Louisa Yaa Aisin, Alaa Abdol-Hamid, Ylva Maia Havndrup (performers), Line Dahler Eriksen, Nanna Katrine Hansen, Samara Sallam (research team), Charlotte von Magius Gross (permagardener), Cæcilie Tørnsø (scenographer), Eliza Bozek, Stephen McEvoy (sound artists), Flora Brandt (light artist), Linda Lamignan (costume designer).
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Album release performance at Fengaros Reacts online festival, November 2021
Photos by Paris Christophi
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Video for ‘Almonds for the Present Moment’ from my album Abundance, featuring a special votive candle released with the album, made in collaboration with Vasiliki Riala and Savvas Avraam. Video by Giorgos Sylianou.
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The event included seven acts performing in traditional houses, courtyards and stone-paved streets of the village, followed by a DJ set in the centre of the village, with various homemade local products on sale. It also involved an art exhibition by local painter Paskalis Anastasi, whose painting “Vavla Village, Morning Light” is featured in the poster and brochure.
The event was held under the auspices of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture as part of the 2023 Cultural Decentralisation Program, with additional support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment.
Graphic design by Popi Pissouriou
Photos by Panayiotis Mina
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Video of Appalachian ballad ‘Pretty Saro’ at Sage Gateshead artist residency:
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Sage Gateshead residency announcement
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From 2020-2021 I was the performance doula for this project at Momentum Theatre in Odense, Denmark. Among the many things that emerged from this project was this durational, open form, installation-performance called På Jorden (On Earth).
Team: Monia Sander (director), Marius Ursu, Louisa Yaa Aisin, Alaa Abdol-Hamid, Ylva Maia Havndrup (performers), Line Dahler Eriksen, Nanna Katrine Hansen, Samara Sallam (research team), Charlotte von Magius Gross (permagardener), Cæcilie Tørnsø (scenographer), Eliza Bozek, Stephen McEvoy (sound artists), Flora Brandt (light artist), Linda Lamignan (costume designer).
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Album release performance at Fengaros Reacts online festival, November 2021
Photos by Paris Christophi
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Video for ‘Almonds for the Present Moment’ from my album Abundance, featuring a special votive candle released with the album, made in collaboration with Vasiliki Riala and Savvas Avraam. Video by Giorgos Sylianou.
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In July 2021, Phil, Lucy and I had a wonderful conversation about music and rivers and mourning and plants and S bahns and practice and duration and materiality and prayer and bells (++++++) and Phil turned it into this gorgeous poetic meander for his show on NTS radio. Have a listen below.
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In May I recorded a new song called ‘Don’t Lament in Sorrow’ with Marios Takoushis and Giorgos Stylianou, for Marios’ youtube channel Warehouse Diaries. This is the first release of some new marterial that will be emerging slowly. The lyrics can be found in the description.
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Bist du bei mir from my album Abundance on the The Wire’s radio show on resonance fm, presented by Shane Woolman.
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A little series of home movies made in and around the village of Vavla, in Cyprus.
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A version of the 18th century German aria Bist du bei mir that Fred Thomas and I made together is out on vol 4 of Nonclassical's Outside the Lines compilation series. Here is a short text I wrote about the release:
This little song was copied by Anna Magdalena Bach into her musical notebook, sometime around 1725. The song used to be attributed to J.S. Bach, but actually it is probably by the composer Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel.
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It is one of many songs and arias in the notebook that take death as their subject in a manner that expresses the Lutheran concern with the spiritual practice of ars moriendi, the art of dying.
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When Lefteris, Andreas, Fred and I gathered to record my album Abundance, I hadn’t decided to put this song on it. But, being an album of ritual, transition, celebration and devotion, it made perfect sense when Fred suggested it.
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When Lefteris, Andreas, Fred and I gathered to record my album Abundance, I hadn’t decided to put this song on it. But, being an album of ritual, transition, celebration and devotion, it made perfect sense when Fred suggested it.
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The song is about leaving this world with confident assurance of salvation in Christ. It begins, "If you are with me, I will go joyfully / To my death and to my rest."
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Since the time of recording, I have learned a deeper lesson about the importance of ars moriendi, of practicing a relation to death, of preparing to greet death with a radiant and devotional gratitude for living.
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I feel that music is at its deepest level of sedimentation a devotional practice, a spiritual practice, and I've always been struck by the devotional power of this song. The absolute foreverness of those words.
Since the time of recording, I have learned a deeper lesson about the importance of ars moriendi, of practicing a relation to death, of preparing to greet death with a radiant and devotional gratitude for living.
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I feel that music is at its deepest level of sedimentation a devotional practice, a spiritual practice, and I've always been struck by the devotional power of this song. The absolute foreverness of those words.
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As with all acts of making, this version grew from many seeds. One of them is a birthday present I made for Fred many years ago, a layered recording made in my bedroom with the melody of the song woven into lines from Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.
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It was an afterthought, and we recorded it last, and it will appear last on the album, as it does here in this compilation. It is a final song, but not a song of ends. It is a song that passes into the other side of repetition.
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Bist du bei mir was recorded and mixed by Andreas Trachonitis at Studio eleven63, with additional recording by Alex Harker.
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My piece “The Resurrection” is out on with UK label nonclassical, on volume 4 of their lockdown compliation series. 100% of the revenue from sales go straight to the artists.
https://nonclassical.bandcamp.com/album/i-hope-this-finds-you-well-in-these-strange-times-vol-4
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From July - September 2020 I had the great pleasure of serving as musical director (although I prefer the term ‘performance doula’) for Ragnar Kjartansson’s The Sky in a Room, which took place in the stunning church of San Carlo al Lazzaretto in Milan. Having been transformed by this piece when I played in it myself three years ago, it was a profound joy to be able to facilitate its rebirth into the world with a wonderful new group of performers.
Performers: Serena Erba, Kleva Metolli, Alessandra Bordiga, Zhou Fang, Yukiko Aragaki, Fausto Caricato and Francesco Leineri
Lilja Gunnarsdóttir, studio manager for Ragnar Kjartansson
Barbara Roncari, production manager
Produced by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Curated by Massimiliano Gioni
https://www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com/en/mostre/the-sky-in-a-room-2/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/arts/design/ragnar-kjartansson-milan.html
Performer: Serena Erba
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Arïanna: Liefde Zonder Grenzen
A production by Podium Mozaïek and World Opera Lab
Director: Miranda Lakerveld Composition: Aspasia Nasopoulou, Kaveh Vares, Haytham Safia Singers: Aylin Sezer, Sinan Vural, Shwan Sulaiman, Sophie Fetokaki, Youmni Abou al Zahab Dancers: Nyanga Weder, Vanessa Felter Haytham Safia Musicians: Haytham Safia (ud), Wim Dijkstra (organ), Tara Kumar (cello), Osama Mileegi (percussie), Vincent Martig (klarinet) en Emmy Storms (viool) Set: Makers Unite Video: Amjad Hashem, Gandy Mansour, Jaap Dankert Boventiteling: Mattias Konecny, Kavita Huizing and Rozemarijn Tiben (libretto translation) Light: Bart van den Heuvel Costumes: Jantine Kraaijeveld Make-up: Carol Zaraï Korver, Armine Vardanyan Assistant director: Anne-Lieke Terpstra, Yousef Al-Kabra Coaching Afro-Surinamese song: Black Harmony Producer: Jasper Berben
https://www.podiummozaiek.nl/arianna#over-de-voorstelling
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The Resurrection
for the eavesdropping end-of-season playlist
Holy week on Thassos, an island just south of the Eastern Macedonian mainland. Since congregating is forbidden, religious services are held behind closed doors, delivered by the priest and two cantors and amplified via megaphone speakers mounted on the outer walls of the church.
On Good Friday, the bells perform an exquisite work of durational performance art, pealing out the three tones of a minor triad, one tone every four seconds, for six hours.
On Easter Sunday, a shortened version of the liturgy, roughly one hour long, resounds throughout the village.
On Monday, I go to the hills.
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Performance at eavesdropping concert series, curated by Juliet Fraser
Oxford House, London
January 24th, 2020
photos by Nayari Cepeda
Live recordings by John Croft and Chiaro
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Poems for the Fire was a joint commission from Departure Duo, for which Haukur Þór Harðarson made the music and I made the text.
January 2020
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BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF INTIMACY
An album of music by Frank Denyer on which I had the honour of singing with Juliet Fraser (voice) and Jos Zwaanenberg & Carlos Anez (flutes) in Two Female Singers and Two Flutes (2013). Out on Another Timbre, Nov 2019
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LUNCH / HÁDEGISVERÐUR
Devised during the ‘Northern Creation’ Residency of the Northern Network for Performing ArtsTjarnarbíó, Reykjavík
October 25th, 2019
with Erlend Auestad Danielsen (NO), Anni-Kristiina Juuso (Sápmi), Mari Keski-Korsu (FIN), Emma Langmoen (NO), Júlía Mogensen (IS) Riikka Vuorenmaa (FIN) and Jacob Zimmer (CAN / WHITEHORSE)
More information: northernperformingart.com/projects/
Photos and trailer by Christoffer Collina
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Fengaros Music Festival
Solo performance of traditional and original songs
August 2nd, 2019
Kato Drys, Cyprus
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Hringflautan / Circleflute
collaboration with Þráinn Hjálmarsson, Brynjar Sigurðarson and Veronika Sedlmair
with Björg Brjánsdóttir, Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, Steinunn Vala Pálsdóttir and Berglind María Tómasdóttir
October 25th, 2018
www.cycle.is
Click here for full documentation
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αἰ αί / æ æ / ay ay — a few pieces about words, and other things that fall apart
September 21st, 2018Perdu, Amsterdam, Netherlands
https://perdu.nl/en/archief/avonden/r/seizoensopener18/
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SONG CYCLES
Koilani, Cyprus
August 13th - 19th 2018
Click here for full documentation.
Photo by Emma Louise Charalambous
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Singing folk songs at Feggaros Music Village, Kato Drys
June 21st 2018
Photos: Andreas Christofides
Featuring: Giorgos Kalogirou, laouto and Charis Ioannou, saxophone
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Performing “Uncle Falling” with Anne Carson, Robert Currie, James Merry and others
Mengi, Reykjavik, Iceland
July 2018
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Reading Emily Dickinson
Mengi, Reykjavik, Iceland
July 2018
Photo by Steinn Þorkelsson
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Singing some Greek folk songs at a release of books by Anne Carson and Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson
Einar Jónsson Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
June 28th 2018
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Meta/morphē
created with María Arnardóttir
Click here for full documentation.
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QUAD
Samuel Beckett
April - May 2018 (series of performances in locations around Huddersfield, created with David Pocknee)
November 2018 (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival)
For full documentation click here.
Photo by Sam Gillies
video filmed by Lynette Quek
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DAYS OF SILENCE
by Haukur Þór Harðarson
with Ensemble Caput, recorded live at Norræna húsið, Reykjavík, Iceland on February 18th, 2018
http://nordichouse.is/event/1515-tonleikasyrpan-tonskaldin-ungu/
soprano
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THE SKY IN A ROOM
art work by Ragnar Kjartansson
commissioned by Artes Mundi
February - March 2018
https://inews.co.uk/culture/arts/ragnar-kjartannson-sky-room-national-museum-wales-review-moments-hypnotic-transcendence/
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/02/ragnar-kjartanssons-five-week-marathon-of-music-the-sky-in-a-room-review
photo by Gareth Phillips
Video on Vimeo:
Ragnar Kjartansson
The Sky in a Room, 2018
Performer, organ and the song "Il Cielo in una Stanza" by Gino Paoli (1960)
Commissioned by Artes Mundi for the National Museum in Cardiff
Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik
Recorded during the performance at the National Museum in Cardiff 3. February - 11. March 2018, performance by Sophie Fetokaki and Sam Roberts.
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THE LOINPRES, OR HOW TO SURRENDER YOUR WILL AND YET TO WRITE
December 2017
Perdu, Amsterdam, NL
https://www.perdu.nl/en/archief/sophie-fetokaki/r/poezie-en-mystiek/
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ReFeRe
radioplay/electronicopera/installation by Thomas Myrmel
The Warp at Kunstkapel. Amsterdam, NL
October 2017
www.rabotnik.dds.nl/thewarp/wordpress/day-ii-in-retrospect/
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SVIOLONCELLO
September 2017
Amsterdam Fringe Festival, NL
made and performed with Brice Catherin and Robin Jousson
http://amsterdamfringefestival.nl/programma/svioloncello/
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Duet for two poets
August 2017
with Mia You
Modernism Today Conference
2017 meeting of the Modernist Studies Association
Sexyland, Amsterdam and an apartment in Larnaka, Cyprus
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άκ02: SONOROUS BODIES
August 2017
voice, vibraphone and diffusion
Thkio Ppalies
Nicosia, Cyprus
www.thkioppalies.org/Sonorous-Bodies
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IMPROVISATION on το γιασεμί / the jasmine tree
recorded in the church of παναγία γαλακτοτροφούσα / the nursing madonna
August, 2017
Mathiatis, Cyrpus
with Brice Catherin
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RA…PATSIA…OU…
opera by Andys Skordis
October, 2016
Dancehouse Lefkosia
Kypria Festival, Cyprus
with Elli Aloneftou
Photo: Silvio Rusmigo
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HARNESS
September, 2016
Oostblok Theater
Amsterdam Fringe Festival, NL
Knot Applicable
members: Vera Goetzee, Dasinya Sommer, Mei-yi Lee, Sophie Fetokaki
music: John Cage Ryoanji (1983-83)
http://amsterdamfringefestival.nl/en/programma/harness/
Review in Theaterkrant (Dutch): www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/harness/knot-applicable/
English translation: knotapplicable.wordpress.com/press-2/
photos by Kasper Vogelzang
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LUCI SERENE E CHIARE with ENSEMBLE HIMEROS
September, 2016
Utrecht Early Music Festival, NL
photo by Kasper Vogelzang
more photos here
performers: Vera Goetzee, Emilio Aguilar, Marie Théoleyre, David Mackor, Andrés Locatelli, Lucía Caihuel, Sophia Patsi, Bram Trouwborst, Miron Andres, Mariano Boglioli
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DUET FOR TWO POETS
for two poets in two different locations, and audience
Mia You performing with Jane Lewty (absent)
DoorKruising June, 2016
Dokzaal, Amsterdam
photo by Kasper Vogelzang
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THEATRE OF THE WORLD
opera by Louis Andriessen
with the Dutch National Opera, conductor Reinbert de Leeuw director Pierre Audi
L.A. Walt Disney Concert Hall, May 2016 (with L.A. Philharmonic)
Amsterdam Carré Theatre, June 2016 (with Asko|Schönberg)
May 2016, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
June 2016, Royal Theatre Carré, Amsterdam
with Leigh Melrose, Ingeborg Bröcheler and Charlotte Houberg
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DoorKruising, January 2016
Zaal100
Amsterdam
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