They call her Dynamite. But she transmits serenity. He speaks low and leisurely, in a fluid Spanish, he is warm and simple and has the bright look. Talking with her is interesting, but seeing her direct an orchestra is a moving experience.
“I am the mother of twins, Greek and artist. All my life was art. I have a lot of patience and determination and I love human beings. I believe in children, music and people. My way of being in this world is to feel everything thoroughly, live together, share, help, change and walk next to those who want to build a better world,” says ZeniodiMain director of the FBUENOS AIRES ILARMONICduring his talk with news.
He was born in Athens and his relationship with art began as a child. His paternal grandmother was a dancer and said that her granddaughter should touch the piano, learn ballet and speak French, and she did so. Zoe liked to dance, but music was completely seduced. At age six he began taking piano classes and learned to play on the piano of his grandmother’s sister, 1895, who still retains.
He later completed his studies at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. It was also formed in the orchestral direction. She is a doctor of musical arts and diploma artist in the direction of orchestra from the University of Miami. And he is a member of the Hart Institute of Women Drivers and the Teacher Academy of the Philharmonic of Paris.
He developed a top -level career, directed important orchestras and is one of the most outstanding directors at international level. She is also artistic director of The Greece System.
“I started as a soloist and the 20 decided to accompany singers because I really liked poetry and voice. At thirty -thirty I visited an uncle in Miami and, following a visa theme, I consulted at the University of Miami and they accepted me to do my piano doctorate. There I decided to take a class of orchestra without knowing anything or thinking about dedicating myself to that. That was also my mentor, it was a genius.
News: Directing an orchestra is much more than moving the arms, body and baton. No?
Zeniodi Zeniodi: Yes. You have to have experience and time with music and art. Understand the language of composers very well and what is music. Stay infinite hours studying and understanding what each composer means and why he says it. Interpret and translate that into music. Translate emotions, feelings, thoughts, depth, stages, levels, structure, form and architecture into something different. The director is a medium between music, musicians and the public. Then, it has to be able to inspire musicians and the public and give a break to the work and to share music. And finally, there is the hands and everything else.
News: And it is also a leader.
Zeniodi: A leader is someone who takes full responsibility, but not all control. In order to have results you have to inspire and to inspire you have to leave freedom. He has to know how who leaves freedom and at what time. If I do not leave freedom to musicians to express and play in their own sounds, their own voices, I will not have anything human. Direct is not making them touch everyone as I want. The idea, structure and architecture are mine, is my responsibility, but the sounds and the instruments are made by musicians. No me.
News: How do you handle your ego?
Zeniodi: I have never thought about this. When I make music I feel that I disappear. Music and composer are the protagonists. My ego exists, like everyone’s, but does not arise at that time. The important thing is the sound. All egos focus on sound and that’s why we all disappear. I don’t remember anything after the concert, I have no view of what was happening, I have no view of the walls, the place disappears, sometimes, because I am so focused on music. It is a meditative situation, and when you are meditating there is no ego. I do meditation with music and out of it.
News: How do you live emotionally?
Zeniodi: This divine space is a transcendental experience for my emotions and for my brain. I am so up, I get out of the floor and I’m high. Emotions, thoughts, determination, focus, center, everything is so high that it is another type of existence. It’s like being drugged, but I don’t take drugs. This transcendence makes me live. They are the situations where I am more alive than ever.
News: There are only ten percent of orchestra. How was your way until you become one of the main ones in the world?
Zeniodi: Perhaps at this moment we are a little more than ten percent, but in main positions we are less. The way for me was not easy, but not for being a woman. I never had a problem being a woman. Yes for being pregnant. They took me out of my management work from a young orchestra because I was pregnant and that was in my country. With five months of pregnancy they told me that I had to go because they didn’t want problems. In general, I felt respected in the different orchestras I was and invited me to return. The most important thing is to get to a time where we do not have to talk more about people’s genre. If someone does their job well we invite you again and already, be it a man or woman.
News: Is it true that the musicians of the Philharmonic of Buenos Aires chose it to occupy the main direction?
Zeniodi: Yes. I had come as a guest director in ’23 and in ’24. The position was vacant, the musicians voted and chose me as the main director. That’s how they told me. Being chosen by musicians is what each director wants. It is the greatest honor that can be.
News: What implies being the main director and the first woman who runs the orchestra?
Zeniodi: I am very happy in Buenos Aires and with this orchestra. Since the first time I came, in ’23, I felt a very special energy. I felt that I was in my country, in my house, that this is my family. The Greeks and Argentines seem very much in the way of being, of thinking, humor. I feel very Argentine when I am here. Being the main director is a big responsibility. It involves working for the orchestra, the public, the city and society. The director has the capacity, skill, right and responsibility to change the culture and art of a city or a country. This is the work of an artist. Being a political being with the meaning they gave in Greece centuries ago. The idea is to share art, be together, those on stage and those of the stalls. We are together and we all receive this energy.
News: What imprint do you want to give the philharmonic?
Zeniodi: This has been one of the largest orchestras in America and Columbus is the best theater in the world. My goal, my challenge, is to be able to take them to another artistic level with a new repertoire, but respecting the repertoire of the past. In almost every concert I have an unknown or not touched or woman or contemporary or something different. I will work the sound of the orchestra a lot to give it an artistic identity that has not had so far.
News: Are there possibilities to get it into the world, to travel?
Zeniodi: It’s something I love very much, I’m already thinking about it. It is one of my challenges.
News: In addition, she is the artistic director of the Greece system
Zeniodi: Yes, it is based on the Venezuelan system. It began in 2017 with the crisis we had with the refugees of Syria and many places in the east. The founders are a French man and an Italian lady who decided to help my country. It is currently an organization that receives 500 children and young people every year to learn free music. We give them instruments, we have concerts, trips, classes, orchestra, choirs and five workplaces. We work with refugees and the Greeks. It is a music program and a social program to unite society.
News: You travel a lot, your husband works in London and their children (a baby and a male) are nine years old. How do they assemble everything?
Zeniodi: My husband is a psychiatrist and specializes in addiction to online games and gambling. He created the first digital clinic in England to help this type of addicts. That is why part of his time is in London. Children live in our house in Athens and grandmothers help us a lot. When I am in Buenos Aires, my husband stays with the children in Greece and when I return, he goes to London. Always one of the parents we are with them. This year I want to spend two weeks per month in Argentina.
News: It looks like a happy person.
Zeniodi: Yes, I feel so happy and so lucky. My religion are music and children. How I’m not going to be happy, I’m living with both. I thank God, to the universe, to children and music because I can live in this way. I don’t need more.
