With two Juno awards, multiple Juno nominations, several national and international awards and a slew of recent commissions by internationally recognized touring artists such as violinist Hilary Hahn, percussionists Theodor Milkov, Dame Evelyn Glennie and Beverley Johnston, the Athens, Winnipeg and Montreal Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet among others, Christos Hatzis is widely recognized as “one of the most important composers writing today” (CBC) and "a contemporary Canadian master" (New Yorker.)

Hatzis is pioneering a distinct breed of 21st Century music which combines intellectual complexity, emotional/psychological directness and technical mastery of various media and musical idioms. His recent work focuses on indigenous issues, geopolitical diversity, migration, environmental consciousness and human rights. Although technically challenging, Hatzis’s music has established a deep and direct connection with a growing number of musicians and listeners worldwide (his audio playlist has registered over 1,700,000 hits since 2008). Two of his recent large-scale works, SYN-PHONIA (Migration Patterns) and GOING HOME STAR: Truth and Reconciliation are indicative of Hatzis’s most recent musical thinking. GOING HOME STAR: Truth and Reconciliation, a ballet score for Inuit throat signer Tanya Tagaq, the Northern Cree Singers and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, was commissioned by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet under the auspices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The critical response to GOING HOME STAR has been unanimous:

“The music for Going Home Star may be the best ballet composition ever created in Canada.”—THE GLOBE AND MAIL

“Christos Hatzis’s tour-de-force score . . . is a game-changer.” —WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

"One of the most powerful and moving works composed by a Canadian composer" - David Dalle, CKCU FM

Based on the themes of climate change, social unrest, migration and nativist reaction, GAIA (formerly SYN-PHONIA: Migration Patterns) for Inuit throat singer Tiffany Ayalik, Arabic vocalist Maryem Hassan Tollar, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra plus SurroundSound audio, had its first performance in 2017 with aspects of the work still under development.

Hatzis’s music is available in a stream of CD recordings on Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon, Centrediscs, EMI, Analekta, Sony, CBC and other major and independent labels, several of them all-Hatzis albums. Recent all-Hatzis CD releases include “Sarah Slean” on Centrediscs consisting of two large-scale Hatzis song cycles, Lamento and Ecstasy, featuring cross-over singer Sarah Slean and Symphony Nova Scotia, and several fully produced videos, such as the Holocaust-themed Menorah and the more recent Three Songs on Poems by Anne Michaels (Canadian Art Song Project), and Nothing but the Light with Sarah Slean and a virtual symphony orchestra assembled in a studio by producer Aaron Tsang.

Hatzis’s music is constantly presented in performance and broadcast (around 100 events worldwide in the pre-Covid era and again post-Covid). Highlights include premiere and Canadian Tour of GOING HOME STAR: Truth and Reconciliation by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 2014 and 2016, and a Mexican tour in 2018; The Isle is Full of Voices, which was commissioned and premiered by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 2014, opened the Eurasia Festival in Russia with the Urals Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015 with more recent performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw, Naples and South Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras among many; the premiere of Vernal Equinox, a marimba concerto for Theodor Milkov (a Greek bicentennial commission). Earlier highlights include the US and European tour of Coming To and Dystopia by violinist Hilary Hahn. (Hahn’s D.G. recording In 27 Pieces included Hatzis’s Coming To. It won a Grammy Award in 2015 and topped many international top and top 10 lists that year.)

Current projects include “The Theodor Milkov – Domenico Scarlatti Project” which consists of works by Hatzis and composition faculty and students at the University of Toronto with plans for performance in major international venues by Theodor Milkov, one of the great mallet percussionists of our times.

For a comprehensive listing of Christos Hatzis's compositions, please visit https://www.christoshatzis.com/music
For a comprehensive listing of Christos Hatzis's writings, please visit https://www.christoshatzis.com/writings
For a comprehensive listing of Christos Hatzis's concerts and related activities, please visit https://www.christoshatzis.com/events