THE TEAM | RE-FUSE

refuse (v.)

/rɪˈfjuːz/

3rd person present: refuses; past tense: refused; past participle: refused; gerund or present participle: refusing

indicate or show that one is not willing to do something.

indicate that one is not willing to accept or grant (something offered or requested).

INFORMAL

(of a thing) fail to perform a required action.

c. 1300, from Old French refuser "reject, disregard, avoid" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *refusare, frequentative form from past participle stem of Latin refundere "give back, restore, return," literally "pour back, flow back," from re- "back" (see re-) + fundere "to pour" (from nasalized form of PIE root *gheu- "to pour"). Related: Refused; refusing.

refuse (n.)

/ˈrɛfjuːs/

matter thrown away or rejected as worthless; rubbish.

The RE-FUSE platform was initiated by the Greek National Opera's artistic director, Giorgos Koumendakis, as part of GNO's Alternative Stage (Athens, GR) activities in collaboration with Gaudeamus (Utrecht, NL). The platform was launched in January 2016 under the artistic coordination of the composer Thanasis Deligiannis (GR/NL) and completed its activities in November 2017. The RE-FUSE team consisted of an international group of professionals from different art fields: Tzeni Argyriou (GR) – choreographer, Argyro Chioti (GR) – stage director, George Dumitriu (RO/NL) – violinist & violist, Pepe Garcia (MX/NL) – percussionist, Richard Haynes (AU/CH) – clarinetist, Kieran Klaassen (NL/US) – network programmer, Els Mondelaers (BE/NL) - singer, Roelof Pothuis (NL) – set designer & lighting designer, Efthimis Theou (GR/DE) - actor, Bas Wiegers (NL) - conductor.

For access to the complete database of the RE-FUSE platform, as well as organisational matters, you can contact Thanasis Deligiannis by email.

Thanasis Deligiannis

Thanasis Deligiannis (GR/NL) is an Amsterdam-based composer and performance maker. For the years 2017-2019 he is being artist in residence at Gaudeamus (Utrecht) through the Performing Arts Fund NL. Thanasis has been assistant to Heiner Goebbels (Manchester International Festival) and a creative team member of the Pina Bausch company under the direction of Dimitris Papaioannou. For 2016-2017 Thanasis was the artistic coordinator of the research platform RE-FUSE (Greek National Opera in collaboration with Gaudeamus), while since 2011 he is the artistic coordinator of the Composers’ Festival of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2014 he co-founded the Amsterdam-based interdisciplinary company I/O with an interest in the conjunction of the performing arts and new technologies. Thanasis has been collaborating as a composer, stage director and performer with music ensembles and theatre companies in Europe, Asia and North America.

Bas Wiegers

Bas Wiegers (NL) studied at both Amsterdam and Freiburg conservatories. After a fruitful career as a violinist, in which he covered a broad musical spectrum, he has developed a career as a conductor, maintaining the same broad musical fascination and undogmatic orientation that marks him as a violinist. In September 2018 Wiegers was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Austrian ensemble Klangforum Wien, and has worked with the most prominent orchestras and ensembles in the Netherlands, among which the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Asko|Schönberg and many more. He has also performed with international orchestras and ensembles such as WDR Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and MusikFabrik. Very active in the world of new music, Wiegers has worked closely together with Louis Andriessen, George Benjamin, Pierluigi Billone, Michael Finnissy, Georg Friedrich Haas, Oliver Knussen, Yannis Kyriakides, Helmut Lachenmann, Rebecca Saunders and many others.

Argyro Chioti

Argyro Chioti (GR) is a theatre director and actress based in Athens. She studied theatre (master of dramaturgy and theatre direction in Provence University, France and degree for acting in drama school "Morfes" in Athens, Greece). She constantly searches for an “holistic” kind of theatre, where interdisciplinarity finds different ways to appear. She has worked as an actress and theatre trainer, but she mostly stages performances with her theatre group VASISTAS and other artists/compagnies. VASISTAS is based in Athens and works between Greece and France. Since 2006 the group has presented many independent productions and has co-produced performances with Athens Festival, the Onassis Cultural Centre Athens and the National Theatre of Greece. Their shows are touring throughout Europe, mostly in France and Greece. For “Spectacle” the group received the honors distinction of the Greek National Association of Critics (Dec. 2011). Argyro Chioti received the prestigious Greek Price “Eleftheria Sapoutzi” for her artistic work (Sep. 2013), and since 2015 she is supported as “artiste associee” by “Les Théâtres” Marseille, Aix-en-Provence.

Els Mondelaers

The Belgian mezzo Els Mondelaers (BE/NL) is a Ghent Conservatory alumni specialized in contemporary music. Her career has been gradually expanded from being a specialist interpreter of classical contemporary music to that of an all-round performer. The world of music theater, contemporary dance and performance, in addition to the contemporary concert venues, became her second habitat. She has performed as a soloist with various music theatre companies, ensembles and orchestras including Folkoperan Stockholm (SE), Muziektheater Transparant (BE), Post uit Hessdalen (BE), Silbersee (NL), LOD (BE), HYOID contemporary voices (BE), Muziektheater Hollands Diep (NL), Theaterproductiehuis Zeelandia (NL), Spectra ensemble (BE), ChampdAction (BE), HERMESensemble (BE), Contempoartensemble (IT), Nadar Ensemble (BE), Vlaams Symfonisch Orkest (BE), DoelenEnsemble (NL), Asko|Schönberg ensemble (NL), Slagwerk Den Haag (NL), Ensemble Klang (NL), Nieuw Ensemble (NL), ICTUS (BE) and in september 2009 she was invited by the Lucerne Festival Academy (CH) to perform Berio’s Sinfonia conducted by Boulez.

Efthimis Theou

Efthimis Theou (GR/DE) studied theatre at the Athens Conservatory and archaeology at the University of Crete. As an actor he has collaborated with the VASISTAS theatre group, the National Theatre of Greece, the Kanigunda theatre group i.a., presenting pieces in Greece and abroad. VASISTAS has received for the performance “Spectacle” the honors distinction of the Greek National Association of Critics of Theatre and Music. Since 2008 he has been working on the conjunction of theatre and archaeology for the creation of performances that explore alternative ways of approaching the material past, as well as producing site-specific spectacles. On this multidisciplinary approach he has published academic papers as well as implemented seminars and presentations. In 2016 he curated the first roundtable discussion in Greece on the use of "Archaeological Sites as Performance Spaces", as part of the exhibition [Out]opias: Performance and Public/Outdoor Space at the Benaki Museum.

George Dumitriu

Active as a performer and composer in the field of jazz/improvised music and music-theatre, the Romanian musician George Dumitriu (RO/NL) plays viola, violin and electric guitar with the enrichment of live laptop electronics. Coming from a classical music background, he studied in Bucharest, Groningen, Amsterdam and New York. He collaborated with artists such as Ambrose Akinmusire, Theo Loevendie, Michel Godard, Ack van Rooyen, Michael Moore, Peter Herbolzheimer, Benny Golson, Dick Oatts. Guest guitar teacher at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam and viola teacher at Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen, he performs internationally with a variety of projects (Sanem Kalfa, Kaja Draksler Octet, Alex Simu Quintet, Eve Risser, I/O, Re-fuse, Nationale Opera & Ballet Amsterdam) and leading his group DUMItRIO.

Roelof Pothuis

Roelof Pothuis (NL) graduated in 2012 at the Amsterdam University of Arts where he specialized in light and set design. In 2013, together with actors from the Theaterschool, he founded the theatre company De Hollanders, which included performances with Arnon Grunberg, Arthur Japin and Erik de Jong (alias Spinvis) under the direction of Gerardjan Rijnders. As a freelance designer, Roelof makes designs for various theater associations such as Suburbia, Hummelink Stuurman, Opera2day, And Peargroup. With theater company, Kat op ‘t spek Roelof is producing and main stage theatre performances with writer/maker Thijs Prein: a dialogue between image and theatre. In addition to theatre, he is active in the new music scene working as a set and light designer for ensembles such as the Nieuwe Ensemble and Looptail, and since 2014 he is a founding member of the interdisciplinary company I/O.

Tzeni Argyriou

Tzeni Argyriou (GR) is a choreographer and media artist. She graduated from the State School of Dance in Athens and continued her studies in New York with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation, where she collaborated with plenty of choreographers. Since 2003 she is a founding member of amorphy.org, which supports the creation of interdisciplinary art forms. In her early choreographic work Tzeni adopted the use of new media, transforming her pieces into hybrid mixed media creations. In her current work she has returned to the empowerment of the «analogue» body, generating choreographic artwork that focuses on the integration of the performing arts with other artistic genres. Since 2004 she has created independent productions and has co-produced pieces, among others with the Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Kalamata International Dance Festival, Théâtre des Bernardines, and she has been supported by NEON and the Isadora & Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center. Her work has been presented in Greece, Germany, France, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Portugal and New York.

Jose “Pepe” Garcia

Jose “Pepe” Garcia (ΜX/NL) is a versatile percussionist/performer based in the Netherlands. He specializes in working together with composers, performers and other artists to create exciting new works. His interest in classical percussion, non-western hand drumming, composition and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms, incorporating percussion and new media. He is a current member of the New European Ensemble and Slagwerk Den Haag (Percussion The Hague). Social work is one of Pepe’s priorities. He is co-founder of the Sonoro Foundation, which offers socially engaging opportunities to children and their families in such need, by organizing music and theatre workshops, lectures and concerts. Pepe collaborates as well with “Musicians without borders”. Currently he is part of the faculty of The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and a regular guest teacher/advisor at several Conservatories in Mexico.

Richard Haynes

Richard Haynes (AU/CH) is a clarinettist, performer, curator, composer, arranger and translator. He performs music spanning the 18th to 21st centuries all over the world in a multitude of contexts: concert, recital, installation, opera, musical, and cross-art forms, performs and improvises with the body and objects, writes traditional and text-based scores for performance, arranges music for ensembles and translates musicological texts. Following studies in Brisbane and Berne, Richard works regularly with ELISION Ensemble, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Proton, Ensemble Resonanz, Klangforum Wien and Manufaktur Aktueller Musik, and with composers Richard Barrett, Walter Feldmann, Andreas Eduardo Frank, Liza Lim, Timothy McCormack, Edward Rushton, Rebecca Saunders and Dominique Schafer. Richard has been artist in residence at the Harvard, Huddersfield, Melbourne, Stanford and Sydney Universities and has appeared at most international festivals for new music.