Conference Agenda

The Library of the Faculty of Music preserves unique manuscripts and printed sheet music that are primarily significant for the study of Serbian music history. Some of these scores also serve as historical documents, bearing witness to the time and place of their creation, often enriched by handwritten marginal notes. This paper presents several examples from the Library’s holdings that are connected with the Thessaloniki region and thereby acquire documentary value for the study of its multicultural history.

We unfold the stories behind these scores, tracing encounters, dialogues, and influences among related cultures. From the piano composition Kolo Salonique (ca. 1900) to the Serbian quartet published in 1919, we follow the composers’ paths intersecting during the Great War. Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki Front form the space of this creative encounter, with 1916 as the temporal focal point in which these narratives gain their full meaning.

Exactly 110 years later, in 2026, most of these compositions remain absent from concert stages. Yet their enduring importance lies in the vivid detail with which they reflect the historical events of their time and place. In this sense, the preserved scores kept in the Library of the Faculty of Music hold crucial scholarly value.

Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos (1886-1960) came to the United States in 1936 and was appointed music director of the Minneapolis Symphony orchestra the following year. During his time in the Midwest, the symphony toured agressively in neighboring states, including Iowa. In Ames, Iowa, Mitropoulos met James Dixon, (1929-2007) who would become his chief protege throughout his musical training at the University of Iowa and transition to professional gigs with the Seventh Army Symphony, New England Conservatory of Music, and the Minneapolis Symphony.

With the donation of James Dixon's papers (including the materials he inherited from Mitropoulos upon his death) to the University of Iowa in 2021, the lives of both conductors are more readily available for research and study. A vast collection of scores and more modest holdings of papers, photographs, media, and realia show the impact both Mitropoulos and Dixon had on orchestral music in the American Midwest during the 20th century.

Xenakis in Zeeland

What if the future of music was written in Zeeland decades ago — and is still audible today in a unique archive of ZB, a public library?

Composer and architect Iannis Xenakis, born from Greek parents, played a key role in the history of the New Music Festival in Zeeland. His work was heard in Middelburg from 1961, where the later Center for New Music grew into an internationally leading meeting point for contemporary music.

From the Xenakis festival in 1976, he became a permanent, defining force within the annual festival. He gave lectures and workshops in various editions and regularly composed new work especially for the musicians who performed in Zeeland.

An indispensable role in this whole is played by ZB Library of Zeeland, where a large part of the archive of the New Music Foundation is kept (scores and sound ), including recordings and released scores by Xenakis. The archive provides insight into how important Zeeland was – and is – for international avant-garde music and how Xenakis contributed to this.

The public library thus functions as the memory of more than 30 years of innovative music practice in Zeeland. By preserving and making this heritage accessible, the library ensures that the influence of Xenakis, other contemporary composers and the Festival New Music is not only captured, but also continues to live on for researchers, musicians and the public. This makes the library a link between the past and future of contemporary music in Zeeland and far beyond.