Stavros Choplaros – Composer

Work Catalogue

Under Construction…

Sample Works

1. Erased Mozart

Instrumentation: bass clarinet/clarinet in B-flat, violin, viola, cello, percussion

Year: 2017

Duration: ca. 7:30

Description: A chamber work inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing, Erased Mozart reworks material from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet into a contemporary texture shaped by gradual transformation, interruption, and reinterpretation.

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2. La déploration sur la mort de Johannes Ockeghem

Instrumentation: flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), horn, violin, piano

Year: 2015

Duration: ca. 8:18

Description: A contemporary response to Josquin des Prez’s lament for Ockeghem, this work develops borrowed melodic fragments into new motivic, harmonic, and textural forms while preserving a reflective and mournful expressive character.

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3. Reimagining a Walking Fugue

Instrumentation: electroacoustic

Year: 2026

Duration: 4:40

Description: An electroacoustic work in two parts. The first part draws exclusively on “shoe” recordings made during the development of another project of mine, The Music of Shoes. The second part introduces increasingly distorted material that gradually merges with the original sounds, mirroring the work’s process of distorted image alteration.

4. Terti

Instrumentation: string quartet

Year: 2019 (revised)

Duration: ca. 22:25

Description: A string quartet based on material from the traditional Cypriot song My Heart’s Longing, Terti explores multiple ways of transforming borrowed melodic and modal material within a contemporary chamber setting, combining direct quotation, rhythmic recontextualization, new harmonic structures, and references to folkloric idioms.

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Note: The accompanying audio is an excerpt from an earlier version of Terti. This score is the final revised version, which has not yet received its premiere; therefore, minor differences may occur between the recording and the notated text.

5. Sonata da Chiesa

Instrumentation: violin and piano

Year: 2015

Duration: ca. 14:10

Description: A single-movement work in four subdivisions for violin and piano, Sonata da Chiesa draws on Byzantine modal material and techniques while placing them within a contemporary instrumental and harmonic language.

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A meticulously notated full orchestral score spread across a large drafting table, pages gently curving and crisply printed with dense, multi-stave textures, detailed dynamics, and color-coded analytic markings highlighting transformative borrowing and polystylistic techniques. Beside it lie transparent overlay sheets with motive maps, a ruler, and color fine-liners. Soft, cool daylight falls from the left, creating precise shadows along the staff lines and emphasizing the paper’s subtle texture. The background fades into slightly blurred shelves of reference scores from different musical eras. Photographic realism, overhead top-down composition with sharp focus across the frame, communicates rigorous, research-based compositional practice.
A pristine university-style classroom focused on a large whiteboard filled with neatly drawn harmonic progressions, orchestration diagrams, and short compositional excerpts, all written in clear black and colored markers. At the front sits a digital piano with a few open scores resting on its music stand, while a small portable speaker and laptop suggest multimedia teaching. Rows of empty, orderly desks recede into soft focus. Bright but diffused ceiling lighting ensures even illumination without glare, while a side window adds a hint of natural softness. Photographic realism, shot from the back of the room using a moderate depth of field, conveys an organized, professional educational setting emphasizing composition and theory instruction.
A minimalist, acoustically treated composing studio featuring a large ultra-wide monitor displaying a dense orchestral score, flanked by neutral-colored studio monitors on isolation stands. Beneath, an 88-key weighted MIDI controller with subtly worn keytops suggests intensive use. The walls display geometric acoustic panels in muted grays and deep blues, while discreet LED backlighting adds a soft halo behind the screen. Cool, balanced studio lighting creates even illumination with gentle shadows under the keyboard. Photographic realism, shot from a three-quarter angle with sharp focus throughout, conveys a clean, modern, highly professional atmosphere suited to a contemporary composer active across multiple genres.