Eastwards Heterotopias of the Piano
Gastvortrag mit Nikos Ordoulidis
This lecture presents Eastward Heterotopias of the Piano, a research project exploring how the piano moved beyond its classical boundaries to become part of diverse musical worlds across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa. Drawing on rare historical recordings from the early twentieth century, it traces how the instrument adapted to non-Western modal systems, popular idioms, and syncretic aesthetics. Through these encounters, the piano reveals unexpected forms of cultural coexistence, challenging the conventional East–West divide. By mapping these “heterotopias” of sound, the lecture invites us to reconsider the piano not as a Western emblem, but as a versatile medium of musical dialogue and syncretism across diverse geographies and identities.
https://www.eastward-piano.com/
Nikos Ordoulidis is a cultural musicologist and musician. He earned his PhD from the University of Leeds in the UK. His research explores previously overlooked repertoires across Europe and the Middle East, examining musical syncretism and the relationship between music, power, and ideologies. He has also been contributing to public and digital humanities, with projects such as the Kounadis Archive Virtual Museum. He was awarded a postdoctoral scholarship from the EU for his research project, ‘Eastward Heterotopias of the Piano’. He is the author of the monograph Musical Nationalism, Despotism and Scholarly Interventions in Greek Popular Music, published by Bloomsbury. He currently serves as an Executive Board Member of the Early Recordings Association in the UK.
Zeit & Ort
Mittwoch, 3. Dezember 2025, 19.00 – 20.30 Uhr
Seminarraum AW U0213
Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie
Ungargasse 14/2. Stock, 1030 Wien
Eintritt: frei
Anmeldung: krammer@mdw.ac.at
Kontakt: Ulrich Morgenstern
morgenstern@mdw.ac.at
© George Evangelou
Recital mit Dora Spetsioti | Nikos Ordoulidis
Eastward Piano
Greek Resonances
“Greek Resonances” is a piano and voice recital with Nikos Ordoulidis and Dora Spetsioti, bringing urban folk songs from the Greek-speaking world, and other historically interconnected folk repertoires, into the present. Songs emerge freed from museum-like interpretations, becoming an open field for experimentation, forming a meta-folk environment where the artists’ personal musical worlds meet the historical material. The material is approached “from the inside”, with rhythms, harmonies, and melodies being deconstructed and the artists’ musical influences being allowed to converse freely. The performance is part of the broader Eastward Piano project, an artistic and research endeavour exploring the intersections of folk music traditions and the piano’s historical and contemporary role eastwards, proposing new forms of listening and co-creation.
Dora Spetsioti was born in Mytilene. She holds a degree in Folk and Traditional Music (Vocals), which included studies at Istanbul Technical University, and a Master’s in Public History. She is currently pursuing further studies in France as a doctoral researcher at the pan-European Artemis University, combining the fields of musicology and cultural geography. Spetsioti commands a wide, multilingual repertoire, from Greek urban folk to Ottoman classical music. She has performed concerts across Greece, Turkey, and France, and has undertaken artistic residencies in France.
Born in Naousa and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece, Nikos Ordoulidis has lived, studied, and worked as a musician and musicologist across Europe. He writes music for solo piano, theatre, and popular orchestras. His work seeks to re-read and negotiate the musical idioms of a vast ecumene: from Central Europe and the Balkans to the Middle East and North Africa. He creates bands with his university students, building new aesthetic frameworks, always in the present tense. He has performed internationally in countries including Taiwan, Iceland, Germany, Luxemburg, Turkey, and France.
Zeit & Ort
Donnerstag, 4. Dezember 2025, 19.30 Uhr
Bankettsaal.
Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1 (AW S)
Eintritt: frei
Anmeldung: krammer@mdw.ac.at
Kontakt: Ulrich Morgenstern
morgenstern@mdw.ac.at