Composer

Irini Amargianaki, born in Athens, inherited her great love for music. As the daughter of the musicologist Georgios Amargianakis (Professor for Ethnomusicology in the areas of Greek Folklore and Byzantine Music), she started her musical education with learning the accordion and music theory. Later on she studied counterpoint, fuge and composition at the Conservatory in Athens under I. Terzakis.

Aside from music she graduated from the University of Athens with a diploma in Theatrology in 2005. From 2005 to 2010 she continued her composition curriculum at the Universität der Künste Berlin under Walter Zimmermann. Subsequently she became a master student under Kirsten Reese and Walter Zimmermann until 2012, also at the UdK Berlin.
During this two year apprenticeship she worked closely with electronic music, sound installation and visual media such as video or shadow theatre.

From 2005 to 2012 she studied the Arabian short-neck lute (Oud) under Master Farhan Sabbagh. With this she was able to take a closer look at her own musical roots as well as non -European folklore and the development of microtonality in the Greek and Arab tone systems. Starting in 2006 she presented musical workshops in several school programs throughout Berlin.

April 2020 she was commissioned by Maestro Daniel Barenboim to write a new piece for Pierre Boulez Saal for the online concerts A Festival of New Music.
2020 she received the composing Work-scholarship from Senate Department for Culture and Europe in section Ernste Musik und Klangkunst.

(Photography: Sebastian Kiener)

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