Tikey Zes (1927–2025): In memoriam — Richard Barrett

On 7 May 2025, Panagiótes Zés, Árchon Protopsáltis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, known to the world as the beloved Greek Orthodox composer Tikey Zes of San Jose, California, fell asleep in the Lord at the age of 97. His wife of nearly 58 years, Theodora, better known as Teddi, had predeceased him in 2021. He is survived by his children: sons Athan and Evan, and his daughter Anna-Matína, who had also served as his longtime organist, as well as multiple grandchildren.

While perhaps Tikey’s music is relatively unfamiliar outside of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, he frequently contributed to pan-Orthodox projects; his setting of “Come, Receive the Light” may be found in Musica Russia’s collection Great and Holy Pascha, and he was one of six composers who participated in the multi-composer work Heaven and Earth: A Song of Creation (published in 2020 by Musica Russica).

Tikey is one of four polyphonic choral composers whose works have largely defined the musical culture of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Archbishop Iakovos era (1959-1996) and thereafter. The other three are Theodore Bogdanos (1932-2019), Frank Desby (1922-1992), and Presvytera Anna Gallos (1920-2015). Together, the four of them outlined the contours of an acculturated choral idiom that employed Western tonal harmony, counterpoint, Romanticism, and organ accompaniment while still preserving the melodic material and modal character of their Byzantine roots.

Tikey’s distinctive contribution to the Greek-American choral tradition was to rearticulate the simplified Byzantine melodies of John Sakellarides (1853-1938) within a thoroughly Renaissance sensibility. In works such as his 1991 Divine Liturgy (revised in 1996), Tikey brings tremendous technical skill to bear, using counterpoint and independent polyphony along with the organ to ornament, to expand, and to demonstrate virtuosity in those areas where Byzantine music characteristically ornaments, expands, and demonstrates virtuosity in performing the underlying chant. One perhaps hears the suggestion of an alternate stream of musical history after the fall of Constantinople, as though the Eastern Romans who fled to Venice had captured the attention of a composer such as Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and convinced him to convert and compose for Orthodox services.