Eastwards Heterotopias of the Piano

Gastvortrag mit Nikos Ordoulidis

This lecture presents Eastward Heterotopias of the Piano, a research project exploring how the piano moved beyond its classical boundaries to become part of diverse musical worlds across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa. Drawing on rare historical recordings from the early twentieth century, it traces how the instrument adapted to non-Western modal systems, popular idioms, and syncretic aesthetics. Through these encounters, the piano reveals unexpected forms of cultural coexistence, challenging the conventional East–West divide. By mapping these “heterotopias” of sound, the lecture invites us to reconsider the piano not as a Western emblem, but as a versatile medium of musical dialogue and syncretism across diverse geographies and identities.

Nikos Ordoulidis is a cultural musicologist and musician. He earned his PhD from the University of Leeds in the UK. His research explores previously overlooked repertoires across Europe and the Middle East, examining musical syncretism and the relationship between music, power, and ideologies. He has also been contributing to public and digital humanities, with projects such as the Kounadis Archive Virtual Museum. He was awarded a postdoctoral scholarship from the EU for his research project, Eastward Heterotopias of the Piano. He is the author of the monograph Musical Nationalism, Despotism and Scholarly Interventions in Greek Popular Music, published by Bloomsbury. He currently serves as an Executive Board Member of the Early Recordings Association in the UK.