Discography - tossikian

George Tossikian
Maximo Diego Pujol: Cuatro Argentinas
Brilliant Classics, 2022

Two years after his debut on Brilliant Classics, guitarist George Tossikian releases a brand-new album under the prestigious European label, including music by Argentinean composer Maximo Diego Pujol.
Pujol’s stylistically inclusive and guitar-friendly writing seeks to communicate his fascination for the different musical strands that have shaped him as an artist. Traditional tango and folk forms are just as present as classical forms in his work, because Pujol strives for a fusion of traditional Argentine music with formal academic concepts.
Maximo Diego Pujol’s music is the guitar testimony of such a complex country as Argentina, but it is also, and above all, the expression of a universal lyricism, feeding on eternal feelings like melancholy, nostalgia, sensuality, passion, anger, and love.
This new recording contains the Variaciones sobre un tema de Atahualpa Yupanqui, Elegia por la muerte de un tanguero, Sonatina, and Suite del Plata, no.1.
One of the most gifted and creative Greek guitarists, George Tossikian was born in Piraeus in 1981. His previous album for Brilliant Classics, entitled ‘Yann Tiersen–La plage’ (2021), contained arrangements of music by Yann Tiersen.

Find it here:

George Tossikian
Tiersen: La Plage, Arrangements for Guitar
Brilliant Classics, 2021

This is the first complete collection of works by Yann Tiersen played on the classical guitar. George Tossikian, involving the arrangement and interpretation of ten themes by the French composer, one of the most inspired musicians of his generation.
Since the days of Segovia, guitarists have practised the art of transcription, and the Greek guitarist George Tossikian continues that tradition with this album. In pieces scored for solo piano or violin, he has aimed for close fidelity, whereas in the ensemble numbers he has taken a freer, more creative approach in order to recreate the colours of Tiersen’s score using guitar techniques such as natural harmonics and tremolo. The result is no less delightful or captivating than the originals.
One of the most gifted and creative of modern Greek guitarists, George Tossikian was born in Piraeus in 1981. He has made several fine recordings of Greek and Latin-American music; this album marks his debut on Brilliant Classics.
Yann Tiersen’s well-loved, magic melodies, melancholic or joyful, childlike and romantic, take on a new life through the classical guitar as the emotional depth of those compositions is perfectly harmonized with the soul of this instrument.

Find it here:

Notis Mavroudis - George Tossikian
Café Latino - El Puerto
(Published by Aparsis, 2018)

Thirteen Canciones y danzas populares of América Latina y España, folk songs and dances from Latin America and Spain, from the rich musical tradition of Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Spain, arranged for two guitars by Mavroudis and Tossikian. Anonymous compositions, lost in the depth of time, now becoming the raw material for the search for new colors, landscapes, and the everlasting musical ethos emerging from classical guitar. Among them are two beautiful Mexican songs, Ramón Ayala and Agustín Lara, which Morpho Tsaireli recalls with her performance.

http://www.aparsis.gr/

George Varsamakis
Aurora
soloist, George Tossikian

“Aurora” is the title of the new discographic work of George Varsamakis. It is a purely guitar-centred collection of works with George Tossikian as a soloist, in which are included compositions for solo guitar, guitar duo, as well as a Suite for guitar and string ensemble.

The musicians
George Tossikian: guitar
Evmorfia Papadimitriou, Marialena Karayanni, Kostas Karitzis, Babis Karasavidis: violins
Yannis Pavlidis, Angheliki Mouriki: cellos

This CD is released by the “EMSE Cultural Action” music producer and publisher. (Sapfous 10, 10553 Athens, tel. no. 210 3252192)

“Varsamakis is a serious musical thinker who functions in the field of music in the special manner of a lover of musical phrases, an impressionist composer of minimalistic expression, with continuously repetitive motifs which he unfolds and varies in order to develop them. His collaboration with guitarist George Tossikian has been decisive for both, I feel. I shall not dwell on their friendship, but will stress the result. Varsamakis has found the ideal performer of his works in Tossikian. On the other hand, Tossikian, a top Greek guitarist of the generation of the first decade of the 21st century, a virtuoso and an interpreter of serious guitar repertoire, found in composer Varsamakis an orchestral repertoire that can enrich the limited repertoire of the guitar. The simple, comprehensive and aesthetically pleasing appearance of the cover is the result of the work of Petros Bouloumbassis, who is a friend of both composer and performer and an active participant in the conception of their covers and posters.”

(Notis Mavroudis, at the Benaki Museum, 21.3.2015, presentation of the CD “AURORA”)

Find it here:

George Tossikian
Mosaic (Shadows of forgotten ancestors)
GT 1067
P&C 2013, MOTIVO

Three years after his first discographic work Guitar Music by Greek Composers, George Tossikian is bringing out his second album, entitled Mosaic.
The work is a collection of pieces for classical guitar inspired by the musical traditions of the Balkans, Greece, Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia and Israel.
The 70-minute CD includes compositions by Evangelos Boudounis, Dusan Bogdanovic, Carlo Domeniconi, Iakovos Kolanian, Lily Afshar, and Sid Robinovitch.The civilizations that were born and thrived on the threshold of East and West, with their rich cultures and long histories have been considered, since ancient times, a point of dialogue between two different worlds. Though these cultures may differ considerably in many respects, they share a certain atmosphere, an essence, which few things, if any, can communicate as well as their music.

Selecting works from Armenia, Persia, Greece, Asia Minor, Israel and the Balkans, this collection creates an invisible map where haunting melodies reveal a unit born out of shared experiences and influences, a perfect harmony.
Just like the art of the mosaic was born at the same time throughout this area, bringing together these neighboring cultures, so this selection of music, brings together pieces from their musical tradition that, different on the surface, form a harmonious whole, a musical mosaic.

Find it here:

George Tossikian
Guitar music by Greek composers

GT 1065
P&C 2010 MOTIVO

The first discographic work of guitarist George Tossikian has been released by MOTIVO Company, under the title ''Guitar Music by Greek Composers''.It is an edition of Greek works for classical guitar, most of which are recorded for the first time.
The works that have been selected cover a wide range of quality Greek music. The 70 - minute CD includes compositions by Thanos Mikroutsikos, George Varsamakis, Nikos Kypourgos, Notis Mavroudis, Theodore Antoniou, Iakovos Kolanian, Vasiliki Legaki, Kostas Grigoreas, George Kouroupos and Kyriakos Tzortzinakis, in the order in which they are presented.

The particular selection constitutes evidence of the thriving contemporary Greek production of works for classical guitar.
The release includes an extensive text by music critic and historian George B. Monemvassitis, while the artwork is signed by illustrator Petros Bouloubasis.

Find it here: