Apollon International Chamber Music Festival

The mission of the Apollon International Chamber Music Festival is to foster a greater appreciation of classical music in the Mediterranean region by presenting performances featuring world-class musicians in beautiful surroundings, while emphasizing the development of a broad based, sustainable audience through education.

The 2nd Apollon International Chamber Music Festival will have a concert atmosphere where both the audience and musicians feel they are sharing an evening of music together - where everyone is comfortable and relaxed. The aim is to make attending a classical music concert attractive to new audiences while simultaneously presenting chamber music of the highest quality to the discerning listener.
2015 Artistic Director Yuri Zhislin has compiled four superb evenings of chamber music including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Faure, Bruch, Brahms, Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Cuellar. The Festival strives to meet a wide range of musical tastes which will appeal to judicious, regular concert-goers while enchanting newcomers.

The Festival is proud to have an international group of distinguished musicians including Yuri Zhislin, Natalia Lomeiko, Nikos Pittas, David Abrahamyan, Claudio Bohorquez, George Georgiou and Katia Skanavi who hail from London, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Russia.
This year, to encourage younger people to live concerts, we have included a Sunday afternoon concert for families, to be introduced by musicologist George Georgiou.

The 2nd Apollon International Chamber Music Festival will again take place at the luxurious, five star Annabelle Hotel in Paphos each evening from 12 to 15 November at 8pm.

Set within six acres of lush gardens with glittering waterfalls on the Mediterranean seafront, the 5 star luxury hotel combines cool, peaceful interiors with warm, caring service in a distinct atmosphere of unpretentious elegance. The meandering freeform pools, waterfalls, palm trees and rambling flowers create a magical setting in which to enjoy a glass of wine before each evening’s concert.

There are four restaurants with seasonal produce and delicate local wines with each room having a private sea-or garden-view balcony or terrace.

Cyprus’ 600km coastline is a paradise for sun seekers and water lovers and according to the latest report from the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, has the best water quality in the whole of Europe.

Cyprus is known as the island of sun and it’s no different in the winter. In November, temperatures remain in the 20’s with very little rainfall in the Paphos area.

Paphos, the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, is an open air museum of Byzantine churches and Roman ruins interspersed with al fresco restaurants and café bars.

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2015 8pm
Mozart: String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515
Arturo Cuellar : Latin Fantasy for Piano and Strings

INTERVAL

Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Opus 111

FRIDAY, 13 NOVEMBER 2015 8pm
Haydn: Piano Trio No. 39 in G major Hob. XV “Gypsy”
Mozart : Piano Quartet in G minor K.478

INTERVAL

Shostakovich : Five Pieces for two Violins and Piano
Mendelssohn : Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49

SATURDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2015 8pm
Borodin : String Trio in G minor on Russian Folk Songs
Weber : Clarinet Quintet in B flat major, Op. 34

INTERVAL

Schubert : Quartet Movement in C minor D.703
Schumann : Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44

SUNDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2015 3pm
3pm : Family Concert (no interval)
Including
Works by Mozart, Handel/Halvorsen, Beethvoen, Scott Joplin, Gardel, Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Sarasate

SUNDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 2015 8pm
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, “The Lark”
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15
INTERVAL
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34

MUSICIANS

Yuri Zhislin – violin/viola
Described by The Strad as a “virtuoso with a truly Romantic temperament”, Yuri Zhislin is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. Equally at home on both violin and viola, Zhislin enjoys an active and illustrious career as soloist and chamber musician, performing in his native Russia, as well as throughout Europe, Japan, the US and South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Born in Moscow in 1974, Yuri Zhislin began playing the violin at the age of six, joining the Moscow Music Gnessin School for gifted children. From his early years, Zhislin took part in numerous public concerts, both in Russia and abroad, performing as a soloist and recording for radio and television. Yuri Zhislin is the recipient of many prizes and awards including the Balis Dvarionas International Competition for Young Musicians in Lithuania and the 1991 Sarasate International Violin Competition in Spain.

As a member of the Rosamunde Quartet, Zhislin has won chamber music prizes and toured extensively throughout the UK, taking part in the Tippett Festival in Berlin in 1995, and giving a quartet recital by invitation of HRH The Prince of Wales at Highgrove.
In 1993, Yuri Zhislin became the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year and in 1994, won the Malcolm Sargent Award. In 1996, he was a prize winner at the Douai International Violin Competition in France and in 1997, received Special Prize for the best performance of the Mozart Violin Sonata at the Premio Trio di Trieste Chamber Music Competition in Italy.

He has played as soloist with renowned orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Oldenburg Chamber Orchestra, London Soloists, London Schubert Players and RCO of London in prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, St John Smith Square and St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

A dedicated chamber musician, Zhislin is Artistic Director of the Apollon International Chamber Music Festival and is regularly invited to appear in international music festivals throughout the world and has collaborated with artists such as Barry Douglas, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Sergei Nakariakov, Phillip Dukes, Priya Mitchell, David Juritz, the Chilingirian Quartet, Roger Vignoles, Konstantin Lifschitz, James Boyd, Caroline Dale, the Belcea Quartet and Alexander Chaushian.

In 2004, Zhislin formed the Russian Virtuosi of Europe, and recently had successful tours to South America and Russia. He has released cd’s on the SOMM, Naxos and Nimbus labels.

Natalia Lomeiko - violin
Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia, Natalia has established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist. She has won numerous prizes in the Tibor Varga, Tchaikovsky, Menuhin, Stradivari International Violin competitions and in 2000, received the Gold Medal and 1st Prize in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, Italy) and the 1st prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (Auckland, New Zealand) in 2003.
Natalia studied at the Specialist Music School in Novosibirsk with Prof. A. Gvozdev, at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England with Lord Menuhin and Prof. N. Boyarskaya, at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Prof. Hu Kun.

Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra at the age of seven, Natalia performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lord Menuhin, the Philharmonia, the Singapore Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Christchurch Symphony, the Tokyo Royal Philharmonic, the New European Strings, the Moscow State Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, St.Petersburg Radio Symphony, the Nice Philharmonic, the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few.

Natalia has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as the late Lord Menuhin, Lionel Bringuier, Werner Andreas Albert, Matthias Bamert, Arvo Volmer, Olari Elts, Sir William Southgate, Vladimir Verbitsky, Christian Knapp, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eckehard Stier, Mikhail Gerts, Valery Poliansky, Pavel Kogan and many others.
In 2001 Natalia recorded the Three Grieg Violin Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky for the DYNAMIC label to a high critical acclaim. Her recital in Cremona on Paganini's violin was recorded live on FONE and released in 2003. Her CD of French Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky has been released on Trust Records in 2004; the Strad described it as "... a stunning recital". Her CD with husband violinist/violist Yuri Zhislin was released in 2011 on the NAXOS label. Her latest CD of Prokofiev’s music on the ATOLL label was released in 2013 and met with 5 star reviews.

Natalia has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in prestigious venues in London, such as the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Kings Place, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall. She has performed chamber music with distinguished musicians including Gideon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, the late Boris Pergamenschikov, Tabea Zimmerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Shlomo Mintz, Daishin Kashimoto, Natalie Clein, Nicholas Daniel and many others. She has appeared on numerous Radio and TV broadcasts and toured the Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Russia, Poland, Spain, the USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Natalia Lomeiko was appointed a Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London in 2010. She is currently based in London.

Nikos Pittas - violin
Nikos Pittas was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. He started playing the violin under the guidance of Stavros Papandoniou at the Ethnikon Odeon of Cyprus. At the age of 16, he was awarded his Violin Diploma with distinction and awards. The same year, he obtained his LRSM Certificate from the Royal School of Music in England. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (BM, GPD, and Masters in music) where he studied with Professor Herbert Greenberg. He has won several competitions (Pan Cyprian Competition, National Hellenic Competition, Baltimore Music Club Competition, the Towson University of Fine Arts competition and the Maryland ASTA Solo Competition) and received scholarships from the A.G Leventis Foundation and the Economou Foundation.

He has taken part in several master-classes and Music Academies such as the prestigious Aspen Music Festival. Since his solo debut in 1999 with the Cyprus State Orchestra, he appeared as a soloist with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic and Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He collaborated with several other orchestras and organizations such as The Baltimore Symphony, The Concert Artists of Baltimore, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Orquesta Simfonica de Castilla y Leon, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Philharmonia, The Pharos Soloists and Ledra Music Soloists.

He has performed several recitals in halls such as The Kennedy Center and the Presidential Palace in Cyprus. Currently, he is a member of Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and a violin professor at the Cyprus Youth Orchestra’s Scholarship Scheme.

David Abrahamyan - viola
A member of Russian Virtuosi of Europe and leader of The Orkest der Lage Landen, David Abrahamyan started his musical education with maestro Oleg Lev and completed his studies (Bachelor Degree and Master Degree with CUM LAUDE) with Henk Guittart (Shoember Quartet) and Boris Belkin at the Maastricht Conservatory.

Abrahamyan’s chamber music partners have included Boris Belkin, Wolfgang Meyer, Liviu Prunaru, Levon Chilingirian, Alexander Chaushian, Yuri Zhislin, Ashley Wass and David Cohen. He has appeared in renowned venues including The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

He has also participated in chamber music festivals all over the world, including amongst others, David Oistrakh Festival, Lincoln Share Festival and the Orpheus-Bacchus Festival. He has given concerts in the US, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Austria.

 Abrahamyan has recorded two CDs with the Dutch Records Company, in works by the Dutch composer Wim Zwaag, who dedicated his Adagio for viola and piano to Abrahamyan.

Claudio Bohórquez - cello
Claudio Bohórquez has been hailed as one of the most exciting and fascinating musicians of his generation by conductors, audiences, concert presenters and critics alike. His recent tour with the National Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach with concerts in Washington and Latin America was a huge success. His playing was described by a Washington Post critic as “unforgettable and excellent” with his interpretation of the Lalo Cello concerto “the most beautiful I have ever heard.”

In the 2012/2013 season Claudio Bohórquez had numerous chamber music concerts in Madrid and Bilbao together with Jörg Widmann and Katia Skanavi, and at the Beethoven Marathon at Berlin’s Konzerthaus with Viviane Hagner and Jonathan Gilad.

As a student of Boris Pergamenschikow, Claudio Bohórquez achieved success at an early age in international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris. This culminated in 2000 with three awards at the first International Pablo Casals Competition held under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy where Marta Casals Istomin presented Claudio Bohórquez with first prize, a special award for the best chamber music, and also the use of Casals’ Gofriller cello for a period of two years.
He also won first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, an achievement which marked the start of his solo career. Since 2003 he has been guest professor at the 'Hanns Eisler' Academy of Music in Berlin and in 2011 was also appointed Professor at the Stuttgart Music Academy.

Claudio Bohórquez has performed with the SächsischeStaatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, almost all of the German radio orchestras, the Württembergischen Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Musicum Basel, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Toulouse, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.
In Japan he has appeared with both the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States he recently performed with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Renowned conductors with whom Claudio Bohórquez has worked include Daniel Barenboim, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jonathan Darlington, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, Ruben Gazarian, Manfred Honeck, Yakov Kreizberg, Sir Neville Marriner, Eiji Oue, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman.

Claudio Bohórquez has been invited to numerous festivals as a guest performer, including the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the City of London Festival, the Penderecki Festival in Warsaw and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Appearances in the United States have included performances at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen Festivals as well as the Hollywood Bowl. He also took part in the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria and Gidon Kremer's "Les Musiques" Festival in Basel.

During the 2013/14 season, Claudio Bohórque played at Konzerthaus Berlin, Beethoven Festival Bonn, in Puerto Rico and Fort Worth/Texas, amongst others. Other engagements included the Cologne Chamber Orchestra under Christoph Poppen and the Philharmonic Society Bremen. He also appeared in the opening concert of the 18th Beethoven festival in Warsaw, performing Brahms’ Double Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto together with Julian Rachlin.
Highlights of the season 2014/15 include several concerts in the USA, in Washington with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Charles Dutoit and concerts in Finland with the Kymi Sinfonietta conducted by Andreas Delfs.

Besides several CD recordings, radio broadcasts and television appearances, Claudio Bohórquez performed on Paul Englishby's soundtrack of the film "Ten Minutes Older - The Cello" which was seen in cinemas around the world. Claudio Bohórquez has also worked with artist Klaus-Peter Kirchner on "Room for Pablo Casals", a work dedicated to the great cellist combining words, sounds and images. 
Claudio Bohórquez plays a Giovanni Baptista Rogeri violoncello presented to him by the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg.

George Georgiou – clarinet
George Georgiou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1984. He began his clarinet lessons at the age of 9 with Dusko Zarkovic and later on with Kleanthis Zambakides and Rocco Sbartella. He holds degrees from City University (BMus and MA in Performance).

As soloist he has appeared with CUSO and Moscow Virtuosi and performed many recitals in Cyprus, UK, Ireland, Greece and USA. He has been a member of Skolia Ensemble, Smithfield Symphonia, CUSO, City University Middle East Ensemble and appeared in venues such as St. John’s, Smith Square, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Warehouse Waterloo and the LSO St. Lukes to name a few.

Georgiou has collaborated with several musicians around the globe including cellist Rohan de Saram, Movses Pogossian and Vladimir Spivakov. He was artist in residence during the 2010 Apple Hill Summer Festival (USA) and worked very closely with both the Apple Hill String Quartet and the upcoming Semplice String Quartet.

He has also been involved and worked with the biggest cultural organisations in Cyprus including the Pharos Arts Foundation. Since 2008, he has been living in Cyprus, where he teaches clarinet and chamber music at the Cyprus National Music School and is the conductor’s assistant at the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Georgiou is also musician in residence at the Avaton Contemporary Music Festival in Limassol. His interest at contemporary music has led him to give many world premiers in Cyprus and abroad. He is the dedicatee of several compositions by Cypriot composers for clarinet and bass clarinet which have been performed locally and internationally. In 2012, he released a CD dedicated to clarinet music of Cypriot Composers.

Georgiou was appointed Director of the Pallas Theatre, Nicoisa in January 2014.

Katia Skanavi - piano
Greek citizen, Katia Skanavi has been impressing audiences, critics and fellow performers alike with her vibrant pianism and sensitive musicality. A former finalist at the Van Cliburn competition, she is a favoured partner of musicians such as Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer, both as a concerto soloist and a chamber musician. She is prized for her command of a rich and vivid tonal palette, and a virtuosity that is allied to intuitive and thoughtful interpretation.

Highlights of recent seasons include recital and orchestral engagements in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Moscow and Paris.
She has appeared at choice European festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Festival and with cellist Truls Mørk in Stavanger. Recent European engagements include her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and concerts with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur.
Her most notable American engagements have included recitals in New York, Ravinia and Washington and concerto appearances with the Symphony Orchestras of Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis and San Francisco. In 2009/10 season her concerto appearances included performances with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under Oleg Caetani and Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michel Tabachnik.

Katia Skanavi recently made her Australian debut with a three-week national recital tour for Musica Viva.

She “brought the house down” (The West) and prompted the critic from The Australian to describe her as having “…an exceptionally refined sense of musical discourse. Skanavi brings a purposeful concentration to every note she plays, and the intensity of her interpretations is utterly compelling.”

Katia Skanavi comes from a culturally rich Greek – Russian family. She began her musical studies in Moscow at the School for Gifted Children and by 12 gave her first public concert in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, performing Kabalevsky’s Third Piano Concerto under the composer’s direction. On her 18th birthday she became a multiple prize-winner in the finals of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Appearances followed at the world’s major concert venues, including the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

She continued to study, at the Conservatoire National in Paris and the Moscow Conservatory, and then at the Cleveland Institute with Sergei Babayan. In 1994 she won the Maria Callas Competition in Greece, home of her great-grandfather, and was awarded Greek citizenship. She had further success at the 1997 Van Cliburn Competition.
Katia Skanavi’s repertoire is an eclectic mix of music from the Classical period to contemporary music. She has recorded several CDs, mainly for the Lyrinx label.

Her discs of works by Schumann, Rachmaninov and character pieces by Tchaikovsky, recorded live in Marseille, were highly regarded by the critics, and a Chopin recital (on the Pro Piano label) was named ‘Classical Recording of the Month’ by Gramophone magazine. Her most recent Lyrinx recording was released in February 2012. It is called Rachmaninov and contains his Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Katia Skanavi's upcoming concerto appearances include collaborations with such conductors as Vladimir Fedoseev, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Markus Stenz.

In the coming season she will be participating in a show of legendary Moscow drama theater "Sovremennik" - a play integrating and counterpointing music of J.S.Bach, Alfred Schnittke and texts by Josef Brodsky.

Her next recital CD recording is to be released in 2015.