Minas Borboudakis

Music is life and life is music

Minas Borboudakis (1974) was born and grew up in Heraklion, Crete. He has lived in Germany since 1992, initially studying piano and composition in Munich and Hamburg, and has worked as a freelance composer and pianist in Munich for many years. He has received several awards for his work, including the Rodion Shchedrin Chamber Music Prize, the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Foundation Prize, the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize and the Music Promotion Prize of the City of Munich.
In his compositions, Minas Borboudakis deals with philosophical and cosmological questions - for him, composing is a way of understanding and expressing life through music. His musical idiom moves between emotion and intellect, poetics and realism. The musical language in Borboudakis’ works is characterized by impulsiveness, microtonality, rich timbres and expressive gestures.
At the center of his work are the large cycles: ROAI I-V (for various chamber music formations), an exploration of the theme of flow based on the Heraclitean theorem “Panta Rhei”. In Photonic constructions I‑III (for orchestra and ensemble formations) he depicts the dual nature of light through oscillating sounds. The third cycle, alongside numerous compositions for solo works and large orchestral compositions, is Cycloids I-III (for keyboard instruments), an exploration of the question of circling and constantly mutating repetition.
Music theater and multimedia works play another central role in Minas Borboudakis’ oeuvre: Works such as liebe.nur liebe (2007, Bavarian State Opera), ἐδιζησ[Ά]μην ἐμε[Ω]υτόν (2012, Munich Biennale), Angels (2014, Maastricht Conservatory) or Enheduanna (2015, The Glasgow School of Arts) have been created. At the Greek National Opera in Athens, the music theater “Z” celebrated great success under his direction in 2018.
Minas Borboudakis’ music is performed in leading European concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Center in London as well as at major festivals such as the Bregenz Festival, the Munich Biennale and the Darmstadt Summer Course.
Clients and performers include renowned European orchestras and ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern. Artists such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, Juraj Valčuha, Constantinos Carydis and Enrique Mazzola are among the performers of his music.
In addition to his work as a composer, Minas Borboudakis regularly performs as a pianist and conductor with various ensembles and chamber music partners.
As a lecturer and music mediator, he develops projects for young creatives with various institutions, for example for the education program of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the composition competition Jugend komponiert Bayern as well as master classes for composition and interpretation of new music at various music academies. He has also shaped the profile of the Munich Society for New Music through his many years as a member of the board.
The highlight of the season 2023/24 is the world premiere of sparks, waves & horizons for large orchestra at Musica Viva and the Swedish premiere of Z Metamorphosis with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Minas Borboudakis has been a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts since 2022.

www.borboudakis.com