Demis VISVIKIS  -  biography

             Demis Visvikis is a composer of greek origin. In his early childhood he started learning the piano with his father – himeself a pianist – and went on studyind for several years at the National Conservatory in Athens. Moreover, as he showed a talent for improvisation, he soon discovered other forms of  musical expression which he practised in parallel with his school lessons.

              When he was 18 years old he settled in Paris where his greed for exploring the diverse musical tendencies urged him to experiment with various types of written, improvised and aleatoric music. Since he didn’t feel attached to any of these movements he tried to perceive what unites them beyong their forms ownig to their essence. Such a deep experience lasted for a few years and made him realise he had a vocation for composing.  He then felt an urge to work out the fruit of his discoveries so from 1974 until 1980 he started studying music-writing thoroughly (harmony, counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and composition) under the supervision of M. Julien Falk, composer and teacher at the main National Academy of Music in Paris (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris), he also studied conducting with M. Georges Tzipine and perfected his piano playing technique with Mrs Jeannine Lacour, Michelle Boegner et Eliane Richepin.

              As soon as 1976, Demis Visvikis made up a rich list of works for piano, chamber and orchestra music. Ever since, his concerts have come to life in prestigious concert halls in Paris and other French towns. Several works have also been scheduled in different countries all over the world. As a pianist he first introduced his own pieces, but since 1990 an increasing number of instrumentalists, among whom first-class pianists, have interpreted his works, thus enabling him to devote himself more particularly to composing. Among his pieces for piano, some have been chosen as works imposed in various international competitions in which he is regularly invited to sit as a jury member.

              Demis Visvikis has been the guest of different contemporary music associations and various festivals : the Festival d’Annecy, the Festival Flaine Musique (France), the Festival l’Atelier Volant, the cycle Accès Direct (Switzerland), the cycle Workshop, the cycle Music der Welt (Greece), the cycle Compositori Ellinici (Italy) etc. He has also collaborated with groups such as the French Symphony Orchestra, the Colonne Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Bulgaria, the Ensemble Erwartung, with members of the Ensemble InterContemporain, the Ensemble Hellénique de Musique Contemporaine and others. He was several times commissioned by different organisms like the Greek Ministry for the Arts, the French Guild of Soloist-Artists, the Teacher Training Music School of Paris (Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris) which repeatedly imposed his works in exams for higher diplomas (1990-1993-1995-1997-2000).

             Since 1989, his works have been parthly published by Éditions Eschig (distributed by BMG), by Éditions Billaudot and by BG Éditions (distributed by Éditions Alphonse Leduc). Since June 2004, Demis Visvikis having created his own catalogue of printed works, has himself provided their distribution. Since 1991, he has been a permanent member of the CMF international piano competition jury and besides from 1996 to1998 he was a member of the Artistic comittee of Universal Arts, working in a huge campaing for bringing the arts and cultures of more than eighty countries in the world closer to one another. 

               In January 2014, he received the Regional, Departmental and Communal Medal of Honor of the French Republic in recognition of his artistic and pedagogical action within the framework of the local authorities. Demis Visvikis was appointed composer-in-residence at the CRD (Regional National Conservatory) of the Choletais - Pays de la Loire Agglomeration Community (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départementale) for the 2014/15 season.

In parallel to his career as a composer, Demis Visvikis is also a writer, publishing books in which he expounds his philosophical conceptions.
In 2017, he published "From Man to the Divine", a work in three parts (Books I, II, III) in which he attempts to demonstrate the Absolute of the Original Fundamental Source, from which emanate the various religions and authentic mystical-philosophical currents, and consequently, the Unity that connects their deep essence, regardless of the differences and divergences that apparently separate them due to their cultural dissimilarities linked to the various geopolitical contexts. In 2018, he published "Reflections on the Essence of Art". It is the quintessence of his research as a composer, in which he proposes his vision of the artistic work in excellence, as well as the nobility of the role of the artist, who, as a mediator of the world of the Soul, draws his inspiration from the highest spiritual spheres where he contemplates immaterial Beauty. In 2021, he undertook an initiatory novel, "Pandora's Box", which takes place in 1984. The action happens in Greece through dialogues that often take place around the temples and other monuments of the ancient Greek civilisation. Conversations inspired by the great existential questions that have preoccupied the minds of idealist philosophers since the dawn of time until today. It is a path that leads to the centre of oneself, based on what Plato describes as "reminiscence".