Fani Kosona: Narratives

Fani Kosona (born 1969 in Athens, Greece) is a composer, pianist, professor of music, and mathematician who holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Athens, studied piano in the National Conservatory of Athens, in the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Jacques Lagarde, then in the Conservatoire National de Région de Rueil-Malmaison with Bernard Ringeissen. She holds diplomas in counterpoint and fugue from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris [CNSMDP] (classes with J.-P. Holstein and M. Merlet) and in orchestration from the Scola Cantorum in Paris (classes with P. Sciortino). She studied composition with Theodore Antoniou. Her work is often focused on mathematical modeling in music composition, proposing, through catastrophe theory models, a dynamical generalization of deconstructive attitudes in the micro and macro-structural level. Her Ph.D. in music composition used mathematical models from topology and catastrophe theory. More recently, she introduced the concept of “topological design” as a generalization of the micro-structural concepts of the past, resulting in a broader concept of musical form and structure. Her work has been regularly selected and performed in several contemporary music concerts and festivals. Her violin and piano composition Flow Imprints was performed by violinist Mark Menzies and pianist Tim Emerson during the 2022 ISCM World New Music Days Festival in New Zealand.

Narratives for violin solo (2020) is composed in 3 movements. According to the composer, “The work is an homage to my beloved teacher and mentor in composition and it is based on two elements that he used to favor: the narrative element and heterophonic texture (as opposed to monophony and polyphony) which in his view consisted of an orchestrational treatment of a melodic line by sculpting it in terms of density, timbre and volume. Heterophony is applied here as a constant lively exploration of timbre potentialities, through a 3D concept. The 3 movements aim to narrate a few abstract and poetically timeless impressions of his life and personality, as he impacted me through our relationship.”