Celebrating Brahms and Rachmaninoff: Cello & Piano Recital

The award-winning pianist Manolis Neophytou and the experienced cellist Doros Zisimos invite you to a recital dedicated to the composers Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff, at Technopolis 20 in Paphos, on Friday, 4th of May 2018, at 8pm.

Celebrating the 185th anniversary of the birth of J. Brahms and while this year 75 years are completed since the death of S. Rachmaninoff, the two musicians will present a demanding program with two works that are considered to be masterpieces: Sonata in E minor op. 38 for cello and piano by Brahms and the Sonata in G minor Op.19 for piano and cello by Rachmaninoff.

Entrance: 10 euro
Reservations are necessary at 70002420 (calls only).

A few words about the musicians
Doros Zesimos was born in Cyprus in 1981. He studied at the National State Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, with Professor Anatoly Krastev and Vasil Kazandjiev, were he graduated with the Bachelor degree in 2006 and in 2007 he graduated with the degree “Master of violoncello”. In 2008 he received Diploma from the Contemporary Music School in Thessaloniki Greece under the guidance of Rusi Dragnev.
Since 2006 he is a member of the Juenesses Musicales World Orchestra with concerts in Spain, Germany, Holland and Cyprus. During the period 1999-2001 he was the principal cellist of the Cyprus Youth State Orchestra. He has also played for orchestras in Bulgaria. As a member of the Cyprus Fulbright Ensemble in 2001 he participated in concerts in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, USA and Cyprus. He has performed works by Cypriot Composers Fedros Kavalaris, Georgios Karvelos, Evagoras Karagiorgis, Nikos Vichas and Constantin Papageorgio. He has also collaborated with soprano Maria Papaioanou and Maestro Marco Balderi. Furthermore he had various recitals in Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus.
He has attended music festivals in USA, Bulgaria, France and Cyprus and has had cello master classes with Yoncho Bayrov, Emilia Baranowska, Thomas Carroll, Maria Kliegel, Franz Bartolomey, Stephan Popov and Bridget MacRae and Chagit Glaser and Peter Somodari.
Doros Zesimos had a collaboration with Anerada a theatre organization with performances in Delphi –Greece for the needs of the Ancient Drama Festival in 2008. He has been colaborting from 2008 with the Cyprus Opera Organization. He has collaborated with choreographer Machi Demetriadou– Lindahl, for the dance play Distant Land, and Eleana Alexandrou for the dance performance Moving solo at the No Body festival, composer Fedros Kavallaris for the Japanese Culture days in Cyprus and composer Andis Skordis playing “Ou pa ca ra”. He has also collaborated with TeatrOpera Organization in Tolentino Italy.
Doros Zesimos is currently teaching at the Music Workshop of the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra. He also teaches the Governmental Music Schools in Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos. He is a member of the bicommunal Cyprus Chamber Orchestra, Commandaria Orchestra, Concordia string quartet, TratSik string quartet, collaborates with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and performs around the island and abroad.

Manolis Neophytou performed his first solo recital at the age of eleven, just before he entered the Moscow’s Central Special State Music School of the ex-Soviet Union, where he studied with Professor Rudolf Kehrer.
Manolis, during the period 1996-2002 studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, with scholarship from Nicolas Economou Foundation. He also studied in Ecole Normale in Paris with a scholarship from the Albert Russell Foundation. In 2004, he has obtained the Masters in Piano Performance from the University of London with scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece.
Manolis represented Cyprus at the Eurovision Classical Contests in Brussels (1992), Warsaw (1994) and Lisbon (1996), after winning the Cyprus National Competitions for young musicians. He received several prizes in international piano competitions: 4th Prize at Senigallia International Piano Competition (Italy, 1994), 1st Prize at the Inter-Mediterranean Music Festival (Palermo, Italy, 1995), and 2nd Prize at the Giorgos Thimis Piano Competition (Megaron Mousikis, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2002).
His performance activities include solo recitals and concerts in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Italy, Hungary, France, Ireland, U.K., Korea, South Africa and Cyprus.
He performed, as a soloist, with many orchestras, as the State Orchestra of Cyprus, the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the Symphonic State Orchestra of Rostov (Russia), the Symphonic Orchestra of Czestochowa (Poland), the Chamber Orchestra of Palermo (Italy), the Goldsmiths Orchestra of London, the Budapest Concert Orchestra. He taught in master classes in Cyprus and the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Homage to Greek Music is the title of his first CD, which was published in 2006 and received a very good review from Mikis Theodorakis. He has also written music for the documentary film by Alessia de Ninno, which received a prize from the NFT (National Film Theatre) of London.
He is teaching piano in Arte Academy of Music European University of Cyprus and in the state music Lyceum in Limassol.