Menelaos Peistikos is a Greek composer and pianist currently based in Toronto, Canada. His music is inspired by an extreme variety of musical genres, ranging from baroque and renaissance music to contemporary classical and cinematic music, as well as from folk Greek to Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music. Peistikos is also heavily influenced by other artistic disciplines, especially by the oeuvres of Plato, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Watts, and Edward Hopper.

For Sun's Light, Molinari Quartet

In February 2019, Menelaos won the 3rd Prize and 1st Prize of Public at the 7th Molinari String Quartet Composition Competition in Montreal, Canada, for his string-quartet composition For Sun’s light. In December 2018, he won the 2nd Prize at the 4th Opus Dissonus International Composition Competition for solo piano in Brazil for his composition On the Vision and The Riddle. 

On the Vision and The Riddle

He is a current student at the University of Toronto, pursuing his Master’s in Composition under the supervision of his new mentor, composer Christos Hatzis. Before continuing his studies with Professor Hatzis, Menelaos studied composition for 7 years with Professor Altin Volaj, who he considers a mentor and a significant influence on his artistic career so far. 

I am currently taking place in a commission led by Jade Hails in which Menelaos will be composing a work for solo vibraphone with the intent to create a masterwork on par with that of the great solo marimba literature. Virtuosic elements will be prominent with influences from multiple competing genres, among them gamelan music. A taste of Menelaos' percussion writing in a Gamelan style can be heard in his mallet quartet "Gamelon Tango".

Gamelan Tango

-Zack T