As an artist, Haris Kittos carries a complex heritage shaped by history, geography, and identity. Born during a time of political turmoil in Greece, with roots tied to refugees, immigrants, and survivors of World War II and the Greek Civil War, Haris comes from a land where three continents converge—a crossroads of cultures and people for thousands of years, but also a crucible of nationalism, religion, and patriarchy. This upbringing fostered a profound sense of suppression and identity fragmentation.
Navigating a world where conformity was expected, where masculinity was performed, and where traditions—like his grandmother’s intricate crafts of embroidery and lace-making—were deemed “for girls only”, Haris learned to exist in a prescribed mold: enduring bullying, tolerating harassment, fulfilling religious and societal obligations, and ultimately escaping to another country to begin anew.
That escape marked the beginning of a decades-long journey of self-discovery, survival, and healing. Through study, practice, and research, Haris began to integrate his fragmented identities—becoming an Anglo-Greek LGBQT+ composer, visual artist, pianist, multimedia practitioner, researcher, lecturer, husband, and friend.
Haris’ work reflects this lifelong process of reconciliation and exploration. Through music compositions, artworks on paper and canvas, video art, and multimedia installations, he documents fleeting moments, and embarks on healing creative processes that are often meditative yet demanding to the point of being masochistic, each piece serving as both a record and a revelation.
Seeking connections between the microscopic and the macroscopic, crafting intricate eddies of memory, realization, and emotion, Haris’ work interrogates the ephemeral, searching for peace amidst the labyrinth of creativity and questioning—a living edifice of expression and resilience.
Biographical note
After concluding his undergraduate studies in music (solo piano performance, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and orchestration) at the Macedonian Conservatoire, and fine art (drawing, painting, etching, sculpture and photography) at Aristotle University in his birthplace Thessaloniki, Haris kittos moved to London in 1998 in order to study composition at Trinity College of Music (now Trinity Laban) at postgraduate level with Andrew Lovett and Daryl Runswick. Further study with Diana Burrell and full scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama led to MMus with distinction in 2001. In 2008, fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (British Academy) and under the supervision of Julian Anderson, Dr Darla Crispin and Edwin Roxburgh, Haris concluded the Doctor of Music program in Composition with his research and thesis on the Iannis Xenakis’ Sieves Theory at the Royal College of Music, where he is currently Composition and Academic professor.
As a composer, Haris also studied briefly with Theodore Antoniou, Susan Bradshaw, Beat Furrer and Alexander Goehr. Also, he was a participant of the Blue Touch Paper scheme of the London Sinfonietta, under the mentorship of Georges Aperghis.
His music has been performed in a wide variety of events, festivals and venues in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan by soloists, ensembles and orchestras such as Arditti Quartet, dissonArt Ensemble, Ensemble Exposé, Ensemble In Extremis, ExplorEnsemble, Fukio Quartet, Kammerorchester Basel, Milos Karadaglic, London Sinfonietta, Jane Manning, Mise-en Ensemble, Sarah Nicolls, Ensemble Nomad, Novoflot, UMS‘nJIP and others.
Participation in festivals includes Born Creative Festival (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre), Cheltenham Festival, Dartington International Festival, Ear London Festival, Forum Wallis, InTransit Festival, Mixtur Festival (Barcelona), Mise-en Festival (NYC), Park Lane Group (Southbank, London), Spitalfields Festival, Spoleto Festival, Xenakis International Symposium 2011 (Southbank) and Taukay Contemporanea Festival (Udine) among others.
As a visual artist, Haris took part in group and solo exhibitions while a student in Thessaloniki but, after moving to London and focusing into music composition, he kept his visual art as a private practice for more than 20 years. This gave him time for furthering his research and artistic explorations in the stimulating dichotomy of being both a musician and visual artist. As his parallel processes of making music and visual art became increasingly intertwined over time, he started presenting his work in recent years as a visual artist as well, while also producing new interdisciplinary and multimedia pieces.
Since 2021, Haris’ visual and interdisciplinary artworks have been presented in the ‘Living Landscape’ trail exhibition (The HopBarn, Southwell), ‘Xenakis 100’ day (Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Southbank Centre), Born Creative Festival (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre), and the ‘Drawing as an Expanded Research Method’ exhibition (Royal College of Art, White City Place).
