Home » Jazz Musicians » Tania Giannouli
Tania Giannouli
Greek pianist, composer, improviser and bandleader. She studied classical music (Piano Soloist and Composition diplomas) and Agriculture (MS on Food Technology, AUA). She explores jazz as the most creative music form and regularly employs improvisation in her practice. She makes jazz of the kind where improvisation is just the starting point and somewhere out there - or something deep inside - is the aim. Ιnspired by many different traditions and influences, her music and interdisciplinary projects span an impressive range of styles - a creative and borderless amalgamation of the global today’s reality.
Establishing her very own voice, embracing and transcending occidental and oriental spheres on her soulful path of creation and dedication to the essentials of moving sound. Her genre-defying "open sound language" is often described as lyrical, inspired, complex, eclectic, intoxicating and highly original. As the Korean magazine Jazzspace has written: “This music invites the listener to dream of eternity.”
Her imaginative, explorative musical nature has led to four unique recording collaborations, all released on New Zealand's foremost art-music label, Rattle Records: Forest Stories (2012, with Portuguese wind player, Paulo Chagas), Transcendence (2015, featuring works composed for her Tania Giannouli Ensemble), Rewa (2018, a critically acclaimed, entirely improvised collaboration with traditional Maori instrumentalist, Rob Thorne) and In Fading Light (2020, an unexpected trio with trumpet player Andreas Polyzogopoulos and oud player Kyriakos Tapakis). All four albums received wide international acclaim and were included in numerous ‘Best of’ lists, with Transcendence cited as one of the most important Greek albums of the decade according to many Greek media.
She has performed at several venues and festivals in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Italy, Slovenia, Romania, Skopje, Greece (among others: Jazzfest Berlin- Berliner Festspiele, Madrid International Jazz festival, Enjoy Jazz festival, Flagey Piano Days, Brussels Jazz Festival-Flagey, Rudolfinum Prague, Bergamo Jazz festival, Bimhuis, Ars Musica, November Music, Onassis Stegi, Skopje Jazz festival, NFM Wrocław, Piano Days Copenhagen, Ystad Winter jazz festival, Cerkno Jazz festival, Munsterland festival, Handelsbeurs, Jazzahead, Zomer Jazz Fiets tour, Borusan Sanat, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, Catania Jazz festival, Synch festival, Thessaloniki Concert Hall and more), but also in special projects like the demanding site-specific concert "634 minutes inside the volcano", where she- together with 14 more musicians- improvised for more than 10 hours inside the crater of Nisyros' island active volcano.
She is much involved in mixed media and her music for video, documentaries and film has travelled to many festivals, museums, galleries and Biennales worldwide. Her concert music has been performed by the Camerata/Armonia Atenea String Orchestra, Dissonart Ensemble, the Athens Youth Orchestra and the Galaxy String Quartet.
Read moreTags
Tania Giannouli: Solo
by Nenad Georgievski
Pianist Tania Giannouli's album Solo represents a captivating and introspective musical journey which showcases her exceptional talent as a pianist and composer. With a program of 24 tracks, spanning 72 minutes , the album presents a voluminous collection of highly personal and original compositions. From the opening track, Transportal," Giannouli's poetic ruminations engulf the senses and invite a deeper exploration of her musical world. This mysterious and enigmatic opening sets the tone for the album, hinting at the depth and ...
read moreEnjoy Jazz Interviews: Tania Giannouli
by Martin Longley
Along with fellow pianist Nik Bärtsch, the other Artist In Residence of this year's Enjoy Jazz festival is Tania Giannouli, from Athens. Like Bärtsch, she has also become a regular at the EJ concerts in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, although Giannouli has been appearing in more recent years. In 2020, your scribe caught her set at the Kunsthalle art gallery in Mannheim, during the lockdowns era. This was a physical space that was ideal for virus-avoidance spacing, as well as ...
read moreEnjoy Jazz and More 2020
by Henning Bolte
Various venues Enjoy Jazz and More Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Schwetzingen October 14-30, 2020 Enjoy Jazz is a festival that stretches across 7 weeks from the beginning of October to halfway through November in the urban area of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg in southwestern Germany. The long stretch had a couple of 'advantages' under the conditions of the COVID pandemic. The organization did not have to deal with a huge number of visitors ...
read moreTania Giannouli Ensemble: Transcendence
by Eyal Hareuveni
Athens-based composer-pianist Tania Giannouli's main area of interest is mixed-media--combining music with poetic texts, visuals, theater plays or art installations. Similarly, Giannouli compositions for her sophomore album Transcendence (after Forest Stories, a duet with Portuguese reed player Paulo Chagas, Rattle Records, 2011) blends elements from her classically-trained background, contemporary music, and European chamber jazz--inspired by the lyrical, often melancholic colors of the ECM school (the album is released by a New Zealand label that follows ECM natural scenery cover art), ...
read more“This music invites the listener to dream of eternity.” - Jazzspace (Korea)
"Tania Giannouli might not be signed to ECM yet, but she would surely be welcomed inside their sonic universe"- Jazzwise (UK)
"Challenging and astonishing at the same time …A mind-blowing concert unlike any other. Giannouli is here to shake up jazz again. She is not only an exceptionally good pianist…She will emphatically leave her mark on music (and certainly not only within jazz) in the coming years.’ Written in Music Dick Hovenga (NL)
" Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, is a musician in her prime!” - All About Jazz (USA) "With this solo Giannouli manifested herself as a very unique and forceful voice. It strengthened the ties with the growing audience she has built in recent times. She proved to be a daring female leader from the European periphery that restructured and melded old and new, known and unknown, classical and improvisational elements in vivid and captivating ways. Not a typical jazz cat but an energetic and decisive player with an open and versatile musical mind."- All About Jazz (USA)
Primary Instrument
Piano
Location
Athens