Legacy Artwork By Zinour

Christos

Portrait of Christos Hatzis, Classical Composer

Often called a “Renaissance Man”, Zinour Fathoullin has achieved excellence in both fine art and dance. “I am particularly inspired by people who are simple, generous of spirit and intellectually complex. When I paint a subject with whom I share a common understanding of this delicate life balance, their portrait simply flows out of me as though I am a conduit of their essence”.

Christos and I initially connected in 1999 through our common love and respect for the Inuit culture. I was in the midst of choreographing pieces for an upcoming tour of my Inuit dance company entitled “Sikumiut (People of the Ice) ”. While vacationing in Nova Scotia with my family, we visited James and Alma Houston’s Art Gallery in Lunenburg and Christos’ music was playing in the background. It immediately caught my attention and, on a whim, I called him at his home in Toronto. We spoke and he gave me permission to use his music for the pieces I was creating. Thus began a relationship that was not cemented by a face-to-face meeting until this spring when Christos generously agreed to sit for me as a subject for this portrait in his country home in Uxbridge, Ontario. The characteristic most evident during our time together was his uncanny ability to be both in the moment with you while at the same time being “somewhere else” in his own world, creating music. This is the expression captured in the portrait.

“Two time Juno Award winner Christos Hatzis is currently enjoying a growing international reputation as one of the most important composers writing today” (CBC Records). Since 1983, Christos has had in excess of 92 national and international commissions as well as being awarded the 1998 Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award for the Canadian Classical Composition of the Year and the 2008 Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award from SOCAN. Christos is an “advocate of borderless culture” – a sentiment many consider a cornerstone of Canadian culture and identity.