Qoppa, The Lost Letter Yiannis Kouroudis

• 1 Qoppa I - Largo 08:41
• 2 Qoppa II - Larghetto 08:36
• 3 Qoppa III - Allegro Ma Non Troppo 10:22
• 4 Qoppa IV - Moderato 08:34
• Total Runtime 36:13

Info for Qoppa, The Lost Letter

Yannis Kouroudis returns with his new work, a string quartet, “Qoppa The Lost Letter”.

The work, written for string quartet, is presented live for the first time at the Concert Hall, on October 11, in an evening dedicated to the musical languages ​​of today, where the dynamic L’ Anima String Quartet will perform two works that open windows into worlds of memory and transformation.

Qoppa the Lost Letter, released on 10/10, is inspired by a forgotten letter of the ancient Greek alphabet – Ϙ (Qoppa). Although abandoned from the Greek language, Qoppa survived as the letter Q in the Latin alphabet. Qoppa, the Lost Letter explores this journey of loss and transformation – from past to present, from Greece to the West, from silence to sound. Passing through four parts, the music does not narrate, it retrieves. Like a memory, not completely forgotten/not lost forever, but needs to be heard again—in a new way.

“Qoppa the Lost Letter started from my curiosity about the letter Qoppa. A letter that existed in ancient Greek script, but was lost over time. What struck me was that it didn’t disappear completely—it reappeared as the Q in the Latin alphabet.This cycle of loss and transformation reminded me of many things that we carry culturally and personally. Especially as a Greek, I feel that much of what makes us who we are comes from somewhere in the past, even if we see it differently today.Music is not a narrative – it is a way to hear what was lost and perhaps recognize it, with a different voice.” (Yannis Kouroudis)

L’ Anima String Quartet

L’ Anima String Quartet consists of Stella Tsani (violin), Brunilda - Eugenia Malo (violin), Elias Sdoukos (viola) and Lefki Kolovou (cello). It was formed in April 1996, after several years of collaboration in the Chamber Music class of Tatsis Apostolides at the Athens Conservatory. All four members of L' Anima have been working with the most famous musical ensembles of the country (Athens State Orchestra, Municipality of Athens Symphonic Orchestra, National Symphonic Orchestra of ERT, Orchestra of Colours, Camerata, Greek Contemporary Music Ensembe etc) for a series of years. They have known great success, both in Greece and abroad, recorded several albums and worked with many important conductors and composers from all over the world.

L'Anima has appeared, among others, in some of the most important concert venues in Greece (the Athens and Salonica Concert Hall, the Herodium, the Vergina Archaeological Site, the Presidential Palace, the Maximos Mansion, the Attalus Arcade, the National Gallery etc). They have collaborated with the Ministry of Culture during the “Full Moon Events”. They have collaborated with ATTIKO METRO S.A. to organise a series of concerts in various underground stations in Athens. They have appeared at the Presidential Palace and the Maximos Mansion at the invitation of the Greek Presidency and the Government. Also, they performed in April 2003 at the Attalos Arcade, during the Ceremony for the Expansion of the European Union, attended by all of the leaders and delegates of the EU member-states, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Presidency of the European Union. They have taken part in several broadcasts of the State Radio and Television, as well as events organised by the 3rd Programme of ERT (the Greek National Radio). The quartet's repertoire includes works from all musical periods, such as Baroque (Boccherini, Bach, Vivaldi, Pergolesi, etc.), Classical (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.), Romantic (Mendelssohn, Schubert, Borodin, Brahms, Dvorak, Faure, Sibelius, etc.), 20th c. (Bartók, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Glazunov, Schuller, etc.), works from Greek composers within thw period 18th - 21st c. (Skalkotas, Antoniou, Sisilianos, Klavas, Papadatos, Konitopoulos, Kanaris, Valet, Kanakis, Hatzis, Stafilakis, Chatzileodiadis, Chatzimichelakis, etc.) and also contemporary and experimental works from young composers. Along with the quartet, more than 20 distinguished soloists have appeared, such as Ch. Zerbinos (accordeon), D. Soukaras (guitar), M. Androulidakis (guitar), T. Gouvelis (piano), K. Destounis (piano), Tz. Manousaki (piano), A. Tkacheva (santouri), J. Georgiadis (violin), E. Nina (cello), M. Katsoura (soprano), K. Theos (cello), A. Kolpodinos (trombone), Z. Tarpagos (flute), etc. In 2011 the first album of L' Anima string quartet was released, entitled “Music for Strings” and consisting of works by Greek composer Savvas Zannas. In September 2014 was released, again from Subways Music, the double album “The String Quartets”, where the L’ Anima string quartet performs all string quartets of the famous Greek composer, Academician and President of the Greek Composers’ Union, Theodore Antoniou. On the four Sundays of February 2016, on the occasion of the 20 years since the founding of the quartet, they organized a great tribute to the Greek string quartet, featuring 19 works by Greek composers from the 19th Century until today.

Since the autumn of 2016 to present, they have been organizing the Chamber Music event “Oinoposies” with the aim of collaborating with distinguished musicians as soloists with L’ Anima, the presentation of many works by remarkable Greek composers, as well as the presentation of a new composer at each concert and the emergence of the huge international repertoire for string quartet. The latest release of the quartet from Irida Production, is the album “String Plus”, which includes works of the Greek composer B. Kanas.

This album contains no booklet.