Graciela Paraskevaidis is an Argentine writer and composer of Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 ancestry who lives and works in Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

.

Life

Graciela Paraskevaidis was born in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. She studied composition at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires with Roberto García Morillo

Roberto Garcia Morillo

Roberto García Morillo was an Argentine composer, musicologist, music professor and music critic.-Biography:Morillo was born in Buenos Aires...

 and at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella with Gerardo Gandini and Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

 from 1965-66 with a scholarship from the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM). She continued her studies at the Musikhochschule Freiburg/Breisgau with Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music...

 from 1968-71 with a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. She studied at Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 in 1972.

After completing her studies, Parakevaidis took a position at the Universidad Nacional in Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

 where she taught from 1985–92 and also worked as a composer. Her works have been performed internationally in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. She has written two books La obra sinfónica de Eduardo Fabini published in 1992 and Luis Campodónico, compositor published in 1999, and a number of articles on 20th-century Latin-American music published in the journals Pauta, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and MusikTexte, Germany. She published a translation of Schoenbergs Zeichen by Jean-Jacques Dünki in 2005.

Paraskevaídis served as co-editor of World New Music Magazine and the yearbook of ISCM. She was an organizer of the Latin American Contemporary Music Courses (CLAMC) from 1975-89. With Max Nyffeler she co-founded the website latinoamérica música in 2004 and has served co-editor. She holds both Argentinean and Uruguayan citizenship, and has lived in Uruguay since 1975.

Honors and awards

• Residency at Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (1984)
• Goethe Medal from the Goethe-Institut in Munich (1994)
• Attended the First Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals of Greek Origin (1985) on an invitation from the Government of Greece
• Award from the Argentine National Endowment for the Arts
• Award from the City of Buenos Aires
• Award from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin
• Award from the Young Musicians of Uruguay Morosoli
• Morosoli Silver Award from the Fundación Lolita Rubial in Minas, Uruguay (2006)

Works

Paraskevaídis composes mostly for chamber ensemble, choral, vocal, and piano performance. Selected works include:

• Aphorismen(text by Karl Kraus), 2 speakers, piano, percussion, tape, 1969
• Mozart (text by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), actor, ensemble, 1970–72
• magma I, 4 French horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, 1965-67 *magma II, 4 trombones, 1968
• Trio, flute, clarinet, bassoon, 1969
• Mellonta tauta, accordion, 1970
• magma III, flute, trombone, cello, piano, 1974
• magma IV, string quartet, 1974
• magma V, 4 kena (Andean flutes), 1977
• todavía no, 3 flutes, 3 clarinets, 1979
• magma VI, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, 1979
• más fuerza tiene, clarinet, 1984
• magma VII, 14 winds, 1984
• dos piezas para pequeño conjunto, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, piano, claves, 1989
• sendas, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, 1992
• el nervio de arnold, guitar, 1992
• algún sonido de la vida, 2 oboes, 1993
• ta, flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, 1994
• No quiero oír ya más campanas, 14 winds, 1995
• dos piezas para oboe y piano, 1995
• hacen así, 6 percussion, 1996
• altibajos, 2 double basses, 1996
• libres en el sonido presos en el sonido, flute (+ alto flute), clarinet, 1997
• La terra e la morte (text by Cesare Pavese), mixed chorus, 1968 *libertà goes by ... (Text by Dante Alighieri), mixed chorus, 1969
• E Desidero only colori (text by Cesare Pavese), female chorus, 1969
• Die Hand voller Stunden (text by Paul Celan), 9 mixed voices, 1970
• Schattenreich (text by Hans Magnus Enzensberger), 4 mixed voices, 1972
• der Weg (text from the Old Testament), 9 mixed voices, brass ensemble, 1973
• the outcry, mixed chorus, 1987
• discord, 9 mixed voices, 1998
• replication, harpsichord, 2006
• huauqui, tape, 1975
• A entera revisación del público en general, tape, 1978–81