17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival

Since its inception 17 years ago the International Pharos Chamber Music Festival has established itself as the most important annual classical music event in Cyprus, and has gained an international reputation for its quality concerts and magnificent settings. Guided by a visionary spirit and dedicated to artistic excellence, the Festival is now recognised as one of Europe's preeminent music festivals, having placed Cyprus on the international cultural map and garnering enthusiastic acclaim from music lovers all over the world, while it has made chamber music more accessible to the general public by presenting exciting programmes and performances of the highest level by some of the world’s most renowned soloists. The Festival also maintains a strong tradition of community service, with educational concerts organized for students of public schools and a number of master-classes for young instrumentalists.

Organized between 2 and 20 June 2017, the 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival welcomes to Cyprus some of the most remarkable artists on the international music scene, for an extensive week of music-making in two unique venues in Cyprus: the Royal Manor House in Kouklia – one of the finest surviving monuments of Frankish architecture in Cyprus and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and The Shoe Factory, a contemporary recital venue situated in Ermou Street near the buffer zone in Nicosia. Exploring the many forms of the chamber music genre, the Festival will encompass an impressive array of instrumental combinations and repertoire, ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century, as well as a number of rarely performed masterpieces.

THE 2017 EDITION:

The 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival will open on Friday 2 June 2017, at The Shoe Factory in Nicosia, with a voice and piano recital by the renowned Danish coloratura soprano Susanne Elmark. In great demand around the world for the last twenty years, Elmark has been engaged in houses like Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Opera Oslo, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Cologne, Opernhaus Zürich, and Royal Opera Copenhagen. For her recital in Cyprus, Susanne Elmark will join forces with the international repetiteur Christian Westergaard, winner of the 2015 International Lied Duo Competition, in a programme of songs by Debussy, Berg, R. Strauss, Prokofiev and Grieg.

A week later, on Friday 9 June 2017, The Shoe Factory will welcome the return visit of the sensational young pianist Vitaly Pisarenko, winner of the First Prize in the 8th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition and Third Prize winner at the 2015 Leeds International Piano Competition. His recital, which is organised in collaboration with the Keyboard Charitable Trust in London, will include works by Schubert, Schumann and Liszt.

After an intensive week of educational activities and master-classes for students from all over the world, the 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival will move to the Royal Manor House of the ancient village of Kouklia near Paphos, which is specifically transformed by the Festival to a first class recital hall. Some of the world’s greatest musicians will join forces for six concerts, between 15 and 20 June 2017, in an impressive array of works.

The Festival will host one of the most renowned names of the great Russian piano school, Sergei Babayan, claimed for the immediacy, sensitivity and depth of his interpretations, the rare emotional intensity and bold energy of his performances and his extraordinary mastery in exploring stylistically diverse repertoire. Babayan was the first pianist from the former USSR who was able to compete without government sponsorship after the collapse of the system, and immediately after his first trip outside of the USSR, he won consecutive first prizes in several major international competitions including the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Hamamatsu Piano Competition and the Busoni International Piano Competition. The Festival will also feature one of the most musically dynamic and technically gifted performers of the new generation of pianists, the Gold Medallist of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Vadym Kholodenko, who is internationally recognised for his powerful and exhilarating performances that “show the guts of a true super-artist”. Alongside them, the Festival is thrilled to present the return visit of the amazing Yevgeny Sudbin, hailed by The Telegraph as ‘potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century’ and by the International Record Review as ‘one of the most important pianistic talents of our time’.

Besides the Festival’s regular guests – distinguished cellist and artistic director of the Festival Alexander Chaushian, the impressive Russian violinist Boris Brovtsyn, violinists Levon Chilingirian and Monika Urbonaite, violists Diemut Poppen and David Abrahamyan, and cellist Tim Park, this year’s Festival will also host for the first time the exceptional violinist Alena Baeva, who is fast emerging as one of the finest violinists of her generation, having already carved out an impressive career to date working regularly as a soloist with some of the world’s most important orchestras, one of the most brilliant and engaging French violinists of our times – Nicolas Dautricourt, who has been voted "Classical Discovery of the Year" at the Midem in Cannes and awarded the Sacem Georges Enesco Prize, the prodigious violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, prize winner in several major competitions, including, Tibor Varga, Seoul, Hannover and Indianapolis violin competitions, and the fascinating violist Jennifer Stumm, recognised as one of the world’s dynamic and creative advocates for her instrument, whose TED talk “The Imperfect Instrument” was named editor’s pick of all talks on ted.com.

The 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival will also welcome the return visits of French cellist Marc Coppey, who was discovered by Lord Yehudi Menuhin at a very early age and who is nowadays considered one of the leading cellists in the world, the renowned Italian flutist Massimo Mercelli, who is the dedicatee of numerous works by some of the most important contemporary composers including Philip Glass, Giovanni Sollima, Sofia Gubaidulina and Krzysztof Penderecki, and the newly founded Cyprus Guitar Trio, which comprises three renowned classical guitarists from Cyprus – Vasilios Avraam, George Christofi and Socrates Leptos.

Piano: Sergei Babayan, Vadym Kholodenko, Yevgeny Sudbin, Vitaly Pisarenko
Violin: Boris Brovtsyn, Alena Baeva, Nicolas Dautricourt, Clara-Jumi Kang, Levon Chilingirian, Monika Urbonaite
Viola: Jennifer Stumm, Diemut Poppen, David Abrahamyan
Cello: Alexander Chaushian, Marc Coppey, Tim Park
Flute: Massimo Mercelli
Guitar: Cyprus Guitar trio

PROGRAMME:

Thursday June 15 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

W.A Mozart (1756-1791)
Duo for Violin & Viola No.1, K.423 (1783)
Clara-Jumi Kang / violin, Diemut Poppen / viola

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Trio No.1 in D minor, Op.49 (1839)
Sergei Babayan / piano, Tim Park / cello, Clara-Jumi Kang / violin

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor, Op.25 (1861)
Vadym Kholodenko / piano, Alena Baeva / violin, Jennifer Stumm / viola, Marc Coppey / cello

Friday June 16 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

Jesús Guridi (1886-1961)
Ala Baita & Alabatua from Canciones Vascas (1956)

Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000)
Csángó szonatina for 3 guitars (1977)

Máximo Diego Pujol (b. 1957)
Fin de Siglo pour 3 guitarres (1995)
Cyprus Guitar Trio

César Franck (1822-1890)
Piano Quintet in F minor (1879)
Vadym Kholodenko / piano, Nicolas Dautricourt / violin, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Jennifer Stumm / viola, Marc Coppey / cello

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
String Octet in E-flat major, Op.20 (1825)
Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Alena Baeva / violin, Nicolas Dautricourt / violin, Clara-Jumi Kang / violin, Diemut Poppen / viola, David Abrahamyan / viola, Marc Coppey / cello, Tim Park / cello

Saturday June 17 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Concerto for Violin, Piano & String Quartet in D major, Op.21 (1892)
Vadym Kholodenko / piano, Alena Baeva / violin, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Clara-Jumi Kang / violin, David Abrahamyan / viola, Tim Park / cello

Philip Glass (b. 1937)
Chaotic Harmony (Arrangement for flute and cello by Massimo Mercelli) (2006)
Massimo Mercelli / flute, Alexander Chaushian / cello

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Quintet for Piano & Strings in G minor, Op.57 (1940)
Sergei Babayan / piano, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Alena Baeva / violin, Diemut Poppen / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello

Sunday June 18 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Flute Trio No.16 in D Major, Hob.XV:16 (1790)
Massimo Mercelli / flute, Vadym Kholodenko / piano, Marc Coppey / cello

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Quartet for Piano & Strings in B-flat major, Op.41 (1875)
Sergei Babayan / piano, Nicolas Dautricourt / violin, Clara-Jumi Kang / violin, Diemut Poppen / viola, Marc Coppey / cello

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
String Quintet in C major, D.956 (1828)
Clara-Jumi Kang / violin, Nicolas Dautricourt / violin, Jennifer Stumm / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello, Tim Park / cello

Monday June 19 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Transcendental Étude No.11 in D-flat, "Harmonies du soir" (1851)
Yevgeny Sudbin / piano

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Nocturne Op.19, No.4 in D minor (1873)
June (Barcarolle) Op.37, No.6 in G minor (1876)
November (Troika) Op.37, No.11 in E major (1876)
Yevgeny Sudbin / piano

W.A Mozart (1756-1791)
Flute Quartet No.4 in A major, K.298 (1787)
Massimo Mercelli / flute, Levon Chilingirian / violin, David Abrahamyan / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello

W.A Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor, K.478 (1785)
Yevgeny Sudbin / piano, Levon Chilingirian / violin, David Abrahamyan / viola, Tim Park / cello

W.A Mozart (1756-1791)
Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in D major, K.381 (1774)
Yevgeny Sudbin / piano & Sergei Babayan / piano

Tuesday June 20 – Royal Manor House, Kouklia

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052 (1734)
Sergei Babayan / piano, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Monika Urbonaite / violin, David Abrahamyan / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello, Tim Park / cello

W.A Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No.25 in C major, K.503 (1786)
Arrangement by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Sergei Babayan / piano, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Monika Urbonaite / violin, Alexander Chaushian / cello

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
String Sextet in A major (1876)
Levon Chilingirian / violin, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Jennifer Stumm / viola, David Abrahamyan / viola, Tim Park / cello, Alexander Chaushian / cello

TICKETS:
Tickets: €10
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/Tickets_online.htm or Tel. 9666-9003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)
Tickets also available from: Kyriakou Fullpage Bookshops: 30 Ellados Ave., 8020 Paphos, Tel:26 822850