Marios Joannou Elia was born in 1978 in Cyprus. He studied at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts “Mozarteum” Salzburg in the composition class of Adriana Hölszky, where he graduated the Master’s Degree (Mag.art.) with Distinction. Additional composition studies led him in the master class of Klaus Huber at the Hochschule für Musik Basel.Elia holds Bachelor Degrees from Mozarteum in guitar performance, music education and music theory also with Distinction.His education has been enriched with several master classes for composition and multimedia art with artists like Georges Aperghis, Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenmann and Karlheinz Stockhausen.Elia is currently working on his PhD in musicology at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts under the supervision of Dieter Torkewitz as well as on a PhD in Composition at the University of Southampton under the supervision of Michael Finnissy. The latter is being enabled through a research fellowship of the School of Humanities awarded for Elia’s outstanding compositional work.As the best student at Mozarteum during the academic year 2001/02, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in Vienna honoured him with a full scholarship. He was also awarded numerous scholarships from such illustrious institutions as the A.G. Leventis Foundation Paris, the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau in Dresden, the Hinrichsen Foundation Award London, the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the Rector’s Scholarship and the Academic Excellence Scholarship at Mozarteum, the Federal Chancellor of Austria (arts section), the Allianz Cultural Foundation Munich, the Academy Schloss Solitude and the Republic of Cyprus.In several international composition competitions he was honoured with over 20 prizes and distinctions, among others the 1st Prize at the Lutoslawski Award, the Raiffeisen Classic Prize and the Patronize Award at the BMW composition competition of the Musica Viva. Furthermore he has been laureate of the Hamburger Klangwerktage and received the Composition Prize of the Viennese summer seminars for new music.Recently he was awarded 1st Prize at the Competition “Recherche” for Composition, the Audience Prize at the Seoul competition for composers and the Theodor-Körner-Fonds Composition Prize awarded by the Austrian Federal President in Vienna and the 1st Prize at the Edison Denisov International Composition Competition in Moscow.Marios Joannou Elia has already been invited to be “composer in residence” in Künstlerhaus Lukas (Germany), Schloss Puchberg (Austria), Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden) and Stiftelsen Kulturhuset USF (Norway).His academic experience encompasses working during the period from 2003 to 2006 as artistic and scientific assistant in the composition department at Mozarteum, class of Adriana Hölszky.Elia’s compositions achieve regular performances in important concert halls worldwide performed at the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Hanover State Opera, the Expo Athens, the Radio Culture House Vienna, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, the Villa Mazzacorati in Bologna, the Hellerau Festival hall in Dresden, the Millenáris-Teatrum Budapest, the Muffathalle Munich, the Koendori Classics Tokyo, the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, the Auditorio Público de Abogados in Buenos Aires, the ACMI in Melbourne and the Qi bai Shi Museum in Xiangtan (China).More Info…

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