LINA TONIA
*28 March 1985
Works by LINA TONIA
Biography
Lina Tonia, is a young award winning composer born in Greece, in 1985. Her work list include more than 100 compositions for orchestra, ensembles, operas and music for theatre that performed in Paris, Vienna, London, New York, Boston, Moscow, Weimar, Berlin, Edinburgh, Zagreb, Sofia, Plovdiv, Tirana, Athens and Thessaloniki.
She has been awarded prizes in several national and international composition competitions for her works. Among others, she received the first prize at the 4th Jungerson International Composition Competition in Moscow (2007), the Baerenreiter Award at the 12th International Via Nova Composition Competition in Weimar (2010), the title of “New Young Artist of the Year” from the Union of Greek Critics for Music and Theatre in Athens (2010).
She awarded with the title “Composer of the Year 2020” from the Federation of American Musicians, Singers and Performing Artists (FAMSPA) at the New York World Music Awards 2020.
She was awarded from the Greek National Opera in Athens, for her chamber opera “The Expelled” (2012) and also at the same year from the Vienna University and Institute Kunsthaus of Muerz, for her work “Kivos” for 12 violoncellos (2012). Her solo work “Neuma” for viola awarded with the Sempre Piu Edition’s Prize in Paris (2014). Her chamber opera “Fear &(s) the Love” performed and awarded in Music Biennale of Zagreb (2015).
Her 5th string quartet “ENNEA” took a premiered by the Arditti Quartet at the Konzerthaus in Mozart Saal in Wien Modern (2015) in Vienna.
She has been invited as guest composer and jury member at Piano Campus International Competition and commissioned to write her piano concerto “Les Mondes Flottants” to be performed as a compulsory piece at the final round of piano competition in Cergy Pontoise (2016).
Her orchestral piece “Squall” performed in Music Biennale of Zagreb by the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dian Tchobanov, and performed by pianist: Srebrenka Poljak (2017).
Her orchestral piece “Butterfly Effect” recorded by the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Pierre Andre Valade in Paris (2017).
She was invited as guest composer by Toshio Hosokawa to the 29th International Takefu Music Festival to give a lecture for her music and get commissions for two new works.
She studied composition at the Department of Music in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2003 – 2008), with Professor Christos Samaras. She completed a PhD in Composition in Edinburgh University with distinction (2008 – 2012) under the supervision of the professor Nigel Osborne and Michael Edwards, where she was studying with a Greek National Scholarship from Union of Greek Composers (2008 – 2009) and IKY Foundation (2009 – 2011). She studied composition with Michael Jarrell at the Vienna University (2012 – 2013). She worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Music Theory & Composition with a fellowship of the Research Committee of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2013 – 2014). She participated in many international composition workshops in USA, UK, Germany, France. She selected to participate at Manifeste Academy for young composers at IRCAM with Toshio Hosokawa, in Paris (2017).
She was founding member and artistic director of Meet the Art, artistic series of concerts and performances around Modern Art in Thessaloniki (2015 – 2016). She is teaching Composition in Macedonia University, Department of Music Art and Science, in Thessaloniki from September of 2016. She gives lectures and seminars around composition and contemporary music. She is a jury member at ENKOR International Music Competition from 2014.
She awarded with the fellowship of IKY foundation to work in a postdoctoral research at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2019 – 2021).
About the music
Music has the power to introduce us to an unexplored world in which each person gives his own dimensions. My music explores new timbres through the use of orchestration and the new techniques of the instruments. I am concerning about the relationship that links numbers and geometrical shapes with the organization of my music thought. Usually I organize my music taking an occasion from mathematical relations or logarithmic series like the Fibonacci numbers. In my last works I used sounds of the universe and I built a process that fits similar sounds behavior. In any way I would like to give parameters to my thoughts and work on them.