Othon Mataragas, a London-based composer, pianist and songwriter, was born and raised in Athens, Greece.
Othon received his first piano lessons at the age of 4 and the following year he gave his debut recital in Athens. When 7 years of age, he was admitted to the National Conservatoire of Greece to study with the famed Greek pianist Maria Kanatsouli-Papadiamandi. He graduated from the Conservatoire at the exceptionally early age of 16, after obtaining his Piano Diploma with Distinction, Prize of Exceptional Interpretation and Xanthopoulidis Prize. During these early years, Othon performed extensively in his home country and appeared frequently on Greek Television (ERT, ANT1, Blue Sky). He received several awards and won competitions, most notably, the National X.O.N. prize for young Greek artists.
Though an acclaimed young musician, Othon soon encountered problems when his appearance started to change. From around 15 onwards, Othon looked nothing like the young Greek pianist one would expect: his constantly changing hair colour accompanied with a passion for body-piercing and self-styled clothing did not go down very well in the conservative classical music circles. In one occasion, he was granted to give a recital at Pallas Theatre, one of Athens’ seminal concert venues, only to be refused to perform later, simply due to his looks.
In 1997, Othon moved to London to study piano with the legendary pianist Peter Katin at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 he obtained his compositional diploma from Birkbeck College (with Distinction) and received a scholarship to pursue his compositional studies at Trinity College of Music (PG level). While there, he was mentored by Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague (with whom he was to collaborate later on) and won the John Halford Prize.
Since he completed his studies in 2006, Othon has been very active as a creator, performer and a collaborator. He has contributed to films (Otto or Up With The Dead People by Bruce LaBruce), fashion films (Komakino and Sophia, for Filep Motwary and Maria Mastori Fall 09 collection), live soundtracks (The Angelic Conversation by Derek Jarman, Nekromantik by Jörg Buttgereit), numerous short films and other happenings (notably, Nasir Mazhar’s catwalk installation for the London Fashion Week, Spring – Summer 09). In 2006, Othon made his debut as a live artist for Stephen Montague’s Sonic Swamp as part of the collaborative workStars Fall From Heaven and two years later he was commissioned to write and perform a soundtrack to Ron Athey’s The History of Ecstasy, in Naples, as part of the Naples Theatre Festival. The collaboration with Athey continued as he became the performer for Athey's next large scale work Gifts Of The Spirit:Automatic Writing, in which Othon performed "automatically" at the piano while in a hypnotic trance state and wearing boxing gloves. Othon has been the first composer to conceive and write music for a pianist wearing boxing gloves. His Boxer-Coaster received its world premiere in Rome, October 2009, as apart of the Pre Final Fest festival and in 2011 he showcased his first boxing gloves song Dancing Horse with Ernesto Tomasini, as part of the Sacred Festival at Chelsea Theatre, Lonodn.
Other artists Othon has performed or collaborated with include Lee Adams, Julie Tolentino, Vaginal Davies and Dominic Johnson, and he is currently working on a new collaborative project with Franko B. Musicians and bands Othon has worked with are the late Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Psychic TV), Current 93, Laura Moody, Black Sun Productions, the Elysian Quartet, A+D+A+M Lab4 and the Danish legend Martin Hall who has asked him to contribute for his forthcoming album. Othon’s music has been played in several radio stations around Europe and the US including BBC Radio and the Greek and Spanish National Radios, for which he performed live twice. In addition, his tracks have been featured in shows such as Dave's Drop In Centre (by David Hoyle - Vauxhall Tavern, London) and Gay Icons (National Portrait Gallery, London). He has performed in festivals such as All Tomorrow's Parties (Minehead), Lost In Thyme (Athens), Donau Festival (Krems) and GLBT Turin Film Festival.
In 2006, Othon formed a long-term collaboration with actor/singer/performer Ernesto Tomasini. Othon & Tomasini have been performing Othon’s songs in the UK and Europe to sell-out audiences, in venues as diverse as churches, concert halls and theatres (Queen Elizabeth Hall - London, Teatro al Albeitar – León, Leicester Square Theatre – London, Royal Exchange Theatre – Manchester, Palacio de la Ahondiga – Zamora, Festsalen Concert Hall – Copenhagen), museums and art centres (National Portrait Gallery - London, Centro de Arte Contemporànea – Santiago de Compostella, International Museum of Applied Arts Today – Turin) and underground London parties (Kaos, HustaBall). In November 2009, Othon & Tomasini performed at the Roundhouse, London, as Marc Almond's special guests, in front of a captive audience of 3000.
Cult label Durtro – Jnana released Othon’s debut album, Digital Angel, in December 2008. Digital Angel featured unique interpretations of Othon’s songs by Marc Almond, David Tibet and Ernesto Tomasini. The cassette-only Touch-affiliated label Tapeworm released the limited edition tape Silky Hands of A Rough Piano Boy in 2011 and at the same year Cherry Red Records/SFE released Othon's ambitious second album Impermanence. Criticaly acclaimed Impermanence, that features previous collaborators Almond and Tomasini together with Camille O'Sullivan, Justin Jones (And Also The Trees), Troy Banarzi and others, was voted the best Greek album of 2011 from leading Greek music site Postwave.gr. The cover artwork for both albums is by award-winning artist and long-term Othon collaborator Hector de Gregorio.