Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis & Adam Pietrykowski

Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis

New York City-based composer Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis (b. 1982) hails from Montreal, Canada. “Dreamy yet rhythmic” (NY Times), with a “terrible luminosity” and “ferociously expressive” (Times Colonist), his concert music is “an amalgamation of the classical music tradition and the soul and grime of heavy metal” (I Care If You Listen). With an intimate background in progressive metal and traditional Greek music, Stafylakis has developed a unique conception of musical temporality and rhythm, infusing his compositions with a characteristic vitality and drive that “favours doomsday chords and jackhammer rhythms” (The New Yorker).

Stafylakis is the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Composer-In-Residence and Co-Curator of the WSO’s Winnipeg New Music Festival. His works have been performed by the Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Regina, Québec, Victoria, PEI, Spokane, Stamford, FSU, Greek Youth Symphony Orchestras, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, McGill Chamber Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Hard Rubber Orchestra, Roomful of Teeth, JACK Quartet, Decoda Ensemble, ShoutHouse, ICE, Contemporaneous, Mivos Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Nouveau Classical Project, ensemble mise-en, Standing Wave, Paramirabo, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, Ensemble 212, Alea III, Lorelei Ensemble, Architek Percussion, Norrbotten NEO, and American Modern Ensemble.

His works have been featured at the NY Philharmonic Biennial, Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, Winnipeg New Music Festival, and the Montreal International Classical Guitar Festival, among others. In 2018–19 he collaborated with progressive metal pioneers Animals As Leaders on the orchestral adaptation of their music for metal band & orchestra, and in 2020–21 collaborated with Courtney Swain and members of Bent Knee on the prog metal & chamber music fusion dontwaitforme. He has collaborated with notable soloists including percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, and bass-baritone Philippe Sly.

Recent and upcoming recordings featuring his music include albums by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra & Miguel Harth-Bedoya (Naxos), Jenny Lin (Sono Luminus), the Cicchillitti-Cowan Duo (Analekta), Patrick Kearney (Contrastes), and the Hard Rubber Orchestra (Redshift).

His music has been recognized with the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award, four SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers, and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, SSHRC, and New Music USA. He serves on the board of directors of GroundSwell (Winnipeg), is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and is a founding member of the NYC composer collective ICEBERG New Music.

Stafylakis holds degrees from McGill University and The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). He lectures at the City College of New York and Purchase College Conservatory of Music (SUNY) and is a guest lecturer at Nazareth College in Rochester. His research examines the conception of rhythm and meter in progressive metal.

www.hstafylakis.com

Adam Pietrykowski

Adam Pietrykowski (also billed as Van Tilburg) is a JUNO nominated producer, engineer, composer, and performer.

Adam’s productions draw inspiration from the avant-garde as well as the mainstream. His work ranges from electroacoustic experimentation to in-your-face rock and metal. It is a study in contrast: delicate aggression, labyrinthine simplicity, expressively restrained, stable yet always in flux.

Adam has engineered for acclaimed producers David Frost, Dmitry Lipay, and Silas Brown on recordings for Michael Daugherty, Jonathan Biss, PBS, and NPR among others. He spent time working under the renowned keyboard programmer Randy Cohen on dozens of Tony/Grammy award winning Broadway shows and cast recordings. His electroacoustic orchestral work Zero Order Hold was premiered at the Performing Arts Center in Purchase NY, and his film music has been heard at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. He is also the recipient of a Hugh Le Caine award in electroacoustic composition.

Adam’s work as a guitarist has also earned him numerous awards, including multiple first-place finishes in performance competitions (Emergenza, The Montreal Guitar Grand Prix). He has premiered new contemporary classical works in Canada and the United States. Adam currently produces and engineers for a diverse lineup of artists across all genres in Europe and the U.S., from dreamy folk (Lady Maisery) to metal-infused classical music (Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis).

“A beguiling blend of ancient and modern […] Producer Adam Pietrykowski oversees a minimalist backdrop in which the gentle plucking of a banjo or a wash of accordion or harmonium shimmer in the background” – The Times of London on 2022’s tender