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Antoniou wins prestigious Herder Prize for peace, cultural understanding
By Tim Stoddard
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Theodore Antoniou Photo by Kalman Zabarsky |
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Students of Theodore Antoniou often describe him as an inspiring technician, a master at fitting abstract ideas into musical forms. But the prolific composer, conductor, and director of BU's contemporary music ensemble ALEA III, says the mechanics of a piece aren't as important to him as its social impact. “I believe music can save us from war,” says the CFA professor, who teaches composition in the school of music. “I believe it can bring us together peacefully.”
In recognition of that philosophy, the University of Vienna and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation of Hamburg, Germany, have awarded Antoniou the prestigious 2004 Herder Prize for his contributions to the cultural heritage of his Greek homeland. The Herder Prize is presented to scholars and artists from central and southeastern Europe whose life and work have improved the cultural understanding of European countries and their peaceful interrelations. “This is an extraordinarily significant award,” says President Emeritus John Silber.
The political overtones in Antoniou's music are not subtle. His opposition to the junta that controlled Greece from 1967 to 1973 is a case in point. Antoniou was studying in Berlin when the junta seized power, but returned to Athens in 1968 to organize concerts protesting the regime. “We weren't performing in normal concert halls,” he says, “but mostly at the Goethe Institute and the Hellenic-American Union, where we could avoid censorship. Everywhere else we had to declare all of the performers and the pieces to the police, and if the name of the composer sounded even a little bit Russian —Tchaikovsky was obviously not allowed — or if they looked into the files of the performers and saw something related to the resistance, they would not allow us to give the concert.”
Nevertheless, in 1970 Antoniou returned to Athens to conduct two of his own pieces, Protest I and Protest II. “The premiere of Protest II was probably the first resistance gathering against the military regime,” he says. “The piece includes words such as freedom that were coming through the voice of the baritone.” The morning after the premiere, to evade the police Antoniou rushed back to the United States, where he was teaching at Stanford University.
“I think those concerts were an important source of inspiration in Greece,” he says. “They were all I could do. If you resist and protest, you're taking action toward freedom and peace. I was not the guy who could really take a machine gun against the regime.”
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Theodore Antoniou, a CFA professor of music, rehearses with ALEA III. Photo by Fred Sway |
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When Antoniou was commissioned to write for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, he prepared a cantata about the fifth century b.c. Athenian soldier who is said to have run 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news that the Athenians had defeated the Persians. The libretto is based upon T. S. Tolia's poem “Nenikikamen” (“We have won”), which is what the messenger was said to have declared to the Athenians before dying from exhaustion. Like the poem, the cantata Nenikikamen takes a different slant on the famous story of the first “marathon,” emphasizing the lives lost at the battle of Marathon. “The purpose,” Antoniou says, “is not just to emphasize the Greek victory, but to give, in an abstract manner, the symbol of a fighting man who strives to achieve extraordinary goals, and denounces war in general.”
As the Herder prizewinner, Antoniou will receive $20,000, and the privilege of selecting a young Greek composer to be given a full scholarship for a year of study at the University of Vienna. The Alfred Toepfer Foundation supports the scholarship, which is given to promising young scholars and artists, under age 30, from the prizewinner's country. It's a welcome opportunity for Antoniou, who has been encouraging young people to get involved in contemporary music for much of his career. As founding director of the Hellenic Group of Contemporary Music in Athens, the ALEA II New Music Ensemble at Stanford, and ALEA III at BU, he has already been a mentor to many aspiring musicians and composers. A 1991 winner of BU's Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, he says he hasn't yet chosen the winner of the Herder scholarship, but has a few strong candidates in mind.
The Herder Prize is named for Johann Gottfried von Herder, an 18th-century German critic, theologian, and philosopher who was a leading figure in the Romantic movement. A student of Immanuel Kant, Herder wrote on philosophy, theology, literature, and art. He was a contemporary of Goethe, the Schlegel brothers, and the Brothers Grimm.
Antoniou continues to compose and conduct at full steam, but even in the thick of a busy schedule of concerts and commissions, he's clear about the purpose of his writing. “Music should serve to express who and what I am,” he says, “and not go against my ideology. I consider more important the understanding of human qualities and relationships. If music ever prevents me from doing that, I will have to stop music.”
6
February 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations