Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Musikwissenschaft

KG 5, Room 319

Office hours in WS 24/25:
Mondays 13:45-14:45
Thursdays 10:00-15:00

Tel.: +49(0)30–2093–65809

E-Mail: George.athanasopoulos[at]hu-berlin.de

George Athanasopoulos is a research associate in transcultural musicology based at the HAEL Lab, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Previously, he was a Marie Curie Junior Research Fellow at the Music and Science Lab, at Durham University. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh under a full scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. He has conducted fieldwork in Greece, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and the United Kingdom, and most recently was a finalist for the Award of Good Teaching at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2024). He is currently working on how music affects and is affected by socio-cultural factors, and on music and multimodality. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and may be found here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3gWfv_EAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Interests

• Cognitive Ethnomusicology
• Music and Emotion
• Cross-cultural Music Perception
• Systematic Musicology

Teaching Approach

My teaching philosophy is grounded in the principle of experiential learning, which engages students with both qualitative and empirical research methodologies. By integrating theory with practice, I strive to mentor students in developing practical skills that yield meaningful insights while fostering a strong understanding of contemporary ethical issues. Active participation is a cornerstone of my seminars, where I employ formative exercises and dynamic Q&A sessions to encourage engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. To further enhance the learning experience, my courses often include a practical fieldwork component, emphasizing contextualization grounded in real-world paradigms. By connecting academic content to ecologically valid settings and students' personal experiences, I aim to highlight the relevance and applicability of my courses, particularly regarding ethical considerations in research and beyond.

Current Courses

• WiSe 2024/25

Echoes Across Borders: Navigating the Musical Tapestry of Berlin’s Migrations

Transcultural Perspectives: Exploring and Understanding the Musics of the World's Peoples 

Publications

Journal Articles

• Athanasopoulos, G., & Kitsios, G. (2023). Performance and the Score: an ethnomusicological perspective. Series Musicologica Balcanica, (4), 3-33.
• Athanasopoulos, G., Eerola, T., Lahdelma, I., & Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, M. (2021). Harmonic organisation conveys both universal and culture-specific cues for emotional expression. PloS ONE, 16(1), e0244964.
• Lahdelma, I., Athanasopoulos, G., & Eerola, T. (2021). Sweetness is in the ear of the beholder: chord preference across United Kingdom and Pakistani listeners. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1502(1), 72-84.
• Giannos, K., Athanasopoulos, G., & Cambouropoulos, E. (2021). Cross-modal associations between harmonic dissonance and visual roughness. Music & Science, 4, 20592043211055484.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2019). Notation. Sage Encyclopaedia of Music and Culture. Publisher: Sage Publications, Eds: Janet Sturman & Geoffrey Golson, pp. 1596-1602.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2019). Time. Sage Encyclopaedia of Music and Culture. Publisher: Sage Publications, Eds: Janet Sturman & Geoffrey Golson, pp. 2192-2194.
• Meimaridou, E. C., Athanasopoulos, G., & Cambouropoulos, E. (2019). Musical gestures: an empirical study exploring associations between dynamically changing sound parameters of granular synthesis with hand movements. In Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, pp. 880-892.
• Athanasopoulos, G., & Antović, M. (2018). Conceptual integration of sound and image: A model of perceptual modalities. Musicae Scientiae, 22(1), 72-87.
• Athanasopoulos, G., Tan, S. L., & Moran, N. (2016). Influence of literacy on representation of time in musical stimuli: A cross-cultural study in the UK, Japan, and P.N.G. Psychology of Music, 44(5), 1126-1144.
• Cheng, C., & Athanasopoulos, G. (2016). Music as protest in Cold War Asia. Lied und populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture 60/61 (2015/2106), pp. 39-57. 
• Athanasopoulos, G., & Moran, N. (2013). Cross-cultural representations of musical shape. Empirical Musicology Review, 8(3-4), 185-199.

Books and book chapters

• Athanasopoulos, G., Ocampo, J-C., Ye., Q. (2024). Cross-cultural assessment of perceived emotion in music: a method for evaluating voice audio samples and real music stimuli through visual imagery. («Διαπολιτισμική αποτίμηση αντιληπτών συναισθημάτων στη μουσική: μια μέθοδος αξιολόγησης μουσικών και φωνητικών ερεθισμάτων μέσα από είκόνες»). In Research and Applications in Music Psychology (217-240). Greek Society for Music Education: Thessaloniki.
• Gkougkoustamou, Ε., Giannos, Κ., Athanasopoulos, , & Cambouropoulos, E. (2024). Music and emotions: the influence of harmonization on emotion perception. («Μουσική και συναισθήματα: η επιρροή της εναρμόνισης στην αντίληψη συναισθημάτων»). In Research and Applications in Music Psychology (pp. 195-216). Greek Society for Music Education: Thessaloniki.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2022). Musical imagery from a cross-cultural methodological perspective. In Music and Mental Imagery (pp. 123-133). Sempre: Routledge.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2017). Semiotic approaches to the representation of music. In Before and After Music. Lina Navickaite - Martinelli, Acta Semiotica Fennica, Vilnius. p. 299-308.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2013). Scoring sounds: the visual representation of music in cross-cultural perspective(Doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh) [last access online: 27/2/2023:https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/7799/Athanasopoulos2013.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Other publications and reviews

• Athanasopoulos, G., & Ladhelma, I. (2022). How your culture informs the emotions you feel when listening to music. In The Conversation [last access online: 27/2/2023: https://theconversation.com/how-your-culture-informs-the-emotions-you-feel-when-listening-to-music-171248]
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2019). A few words on fieldwork research. In Music & Science Lab, Durham University [last access online: 27/2/2023: https://musicscience.net/2019/09/11/a-few-words-on-fieldwork-research/]
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2019). The reviewing process: deal with it. In Music & Science Lab, Durham University [last access online: 27/2/2023: https://musicscience.net/2019/01/16/the-reviewing-process-deal-with-it/]
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2016). Narcissism in music: from the virtuosos of the past to the contemporary music industry. AΩ International Magazine, 37(6-7)

Editorials

• Panos, N., Lympouridis, V., Athanasopoulos, G., & Nelson, P. (Eds.) (2013). Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Semiotics In memory of Raymond Monelle University of Edinburgh, 26-28 October 2012, UK. The University of Edinburgh. 

Selected Publications in Conference Proceedings

• Athanasopoulos, G. (2023). Funeral rites of the Kalash of NW Pakistan. In Proceedings of Mo Muong and Similar Forms of Rituals and Beliefs in the World. Hoa Binh, Vietnam, p.141-155.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2023). Mendicity, or Artistic Expression? How Street Musicians in Thessaloniki, Greece Changed the Country’s Legislation on Vagrancy. 20th Urban Culture Research Forum “Urban Voices”. Urban Resilience Research Center Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan. 20(2), 1-19.
• Athanasopoulos, G., Giannos, K., Cambouropoulos, E. (2022). Cross-modal associations of musical harmony: Speed, randomness, and surface roughness. In Proceedings of Psychology and Music–Interdisciplinary Encounters Conference, 2, 38. University of Belgrade, Serbia.
• Giannos, K., Athanasopoulos, G., Cambouropoulos, E. (2022). Musical consonance and dissonance: The relevance of the horizontal dimension. In Proceedings of Psychology and Music–Interdisciplinary EncountersConference, 2, 70. University of Belgrade, Serbia.
• Athanasopoulos, G., Eerola, T., Ladhelma, I., Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, M., & Damjanovic., L. (2021). The influence of harmonic background of melody on perceived emotions. In Proceedings of ICMPC16-11^th Sheffield, U.K., p.28.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2018). Imitations – Transformations: Birds of paradise in performance from the central provinces of Papua New Guinea. In Proceedings of FMA, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, p.77.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2017). Where musical cultures (un)blend: Regional varieties in the visual representation of music articulation. In Proceedings of RMA Musical Cultures Conference. 1, 17. University of Hull, U.K.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2016). Music and image: conceptual blending through time. In Proceedings of Transpositions: Music/Image - XIII. Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade. Belgrade, Serbia, p.27.
• Tan, S-L, Athanasopoulos, G., & Moran, N. (2015). An exploratory cross-cultural study of directionality in musical representation: Britain, Japan, and Papua New Guinea. In Proceedings of Proceedings of SMPC 2015, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. p.136.
• Athanasopoulos, G., & Kitsios, G. (2015). Sonic perception translated into image: Greek traditional musicians attempt to portray classical/traditional music as graphic representations. Proceedings of the 2015 Musicult – Locality and Universality. ITU, Turkey, 2015, p.95-106.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2015). Death of the Nama Bird cult: how the relation of music to an animistic cultural identity led to its abolishment. Proceedings of the 2015 Musicult – Locality and Universality. ITU, Turkey, 2015, p.511-513.
• Athanasopoulos, G. & Kitsios, G. (2015). The effect of musical culture on pictorial notations of pitch and tempo. In Proceedings of 9^th ESCOM, RNCM, Manchester, U.K., p.194-195.
• Athanasopoulos, G. (2013). The Fall of Ancient Greek Notation – social change in the ancient world. In Proceedings of Crossroads: Greece as an Intercultural Pole of Musical Thought and Creativity. Thessaloniki, Greece, p.181-190.
• Athanasopoulos, G., & Moran, N. (2012). Pictorial notations of pitch, duration, and tempo: A musical approach to the cultural relativity of shape. In Proceedings of the 12th ICMPC. Thessaloniki, Greece, p. 69.
• Athanasopoulos, G., Moran, N., & Frith, S. (2011). Literacy makes a difference: A study on the graphic representation of music by communities in the U.K., Japan, and P.N.G. In Proceedings of the 11th ICMPC, Rochester, NY, USA., p.29.