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Prof. Dr. Manolis Vlitakis

short vita

The composer and music theorist Manolis (Emmanouil) Vlitakis was born 1967 in Athens/Greece.
He studied composition (M. Travlos, W. Zimmermann, G. Neuwirth, G. Grisey, M. Stroppa), music theory (E. Kokkoris, H. Fladt, J. Mainka, O. Trachier) and orchestration (M.-A. Dalbavie) in Athens, Berlin and Paris and wrote his doctoral thesis in musicology (C. M. Schmidt) about sound and orchestration in compositions of Lachenmann, Boulez, Ligeti and Grisey, published in Sinfonia 11 by Wolke Verlag.

Vlitakis was promoted by different foundations as well as by the federal state of Berlin (artist-in residence stipend Paris Cité des Arts, composition scholarship 2004, doctorate NaFöG-graduation).
His works were played by Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble Echo, Ensemble Junge Musik, Trio IAMA, Miltos Logiadis, Kasper de Roo, Enno Poppe, Frank Gutschmidt, Ermis Theodorakis, Alexander Doroschkevich, Theodoros Kerkezos and others.
His approach is marked by structural thinking combined with specific implications of the sound phenomenon. The investigation on language, literature and philosophy builds one of his main (and mostly generative) aspects of composing.

Vlitakis follows in his writings a dedicated analytical approach and focus on the relationship between sound/orchestration and form, music theory and composition as also on intercultural composition. His main emphasis is thereby the music of the 20th/21st  century.

Since 2000 Manolis Vlitakis has been teaching music theory, composition and instrumentation/orchestration in several music academies in Germany (UdK Berlin, HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin, HfM Franz Liszt Weimar, HfMDK Frankfurt a.M.) and abroad (guest lecturer at the CNSMD Paris, masterclasses for composition at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire/Georgia).
2017-2019 he was guest professor for composition, in February 2020 followed his appointment to a professorship for music theory at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin).

Find him on Soundcloud: Manolis Vlitakis