From a composer’s perspective: Panayiotis Kokoras

The Italian writer and semiologist Umberto Eco said in Guardian newspaper some months ago: ‘we must remember that it is culture, not war, that cements our European identity’.

To that extent, although the last years Greece looks more and more distant to Europe, it cannot go that far. I feel nothing can defeat the European identity of Greece. It seems the European identity cannot be defined easily in geopolitical terms. It has been curved over centuries, even millenniums by values and ethics in society, art, politics and philosophy that no war can destroy.

Being both composer and Greek this identity crisis makes me wonder; am I member of a National (Greek) school in contemporary music today or am I member of the European contemporary music scene? – Panayiotis Kokoras, Denton, 8 September 2012