Emmanuel Despax - piano

The Pharos Arts Foundation continues its Concert and Recital Series with a recital by the French pianist Emmanuel Despax, described by councertclassic.com as a “soloist with winged virtuosi fingers”. The recital will take place on Tuesday 30 October 2012, at The Shoe Factory, Nicosia / 8:30pm, and will include works by Bach-Busoni, Liszt and Mussorgsky.

Emmanuel Despax / piano
“Poetry and a genuine sense of the narrative together with breath-taking technical perfection ... a soloist with winged virtuosi fingers. This is first and foremost a musician that we had better follow very closely.” Michel Le Naour, concertclassic.com (Paris - Louvre auditorium)

French pianist Emmanuel Despax is fast making a name for himself as a musician on the rise: recent highlights include his return to the Wigmore Hall for the fourth time, giving a recital at Paris' Salle Gaveau and opening the International Series at the Louvre which was broadcast live on France Musique and Medici TV.

In his native France he has appeared at Le Festival International de Musique à la Cour at Solliès-Pont; a gala concert at La Roque d’Anthéron; Le Festival de Lacoste and Le Festival des nuits du Château de la Moutte in St Tropez. Elsewhere in Europe he has given recitals at the Fazioli Auditorium in Italy, the Gasteig Blackbox in Munich and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Belgium.

Now based in London, Emmanuel has performed with many UK orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony, the London Festival Orchestra in their Virtuoso Pianists Series at Cadogan Hall and Arion Orchestra at St James’s Piccadilly. In addition to his four recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Emmanuel has also performed at Cadogan Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, the Drapers’ Hall and the Chipping Campden and Petworth Festivals.

“Despax created a chaste and ethereal world... a purity of utterance that was attractive... his clarity was admirable, so too his finesse...” Colin Anderson, Classical Source.

At 13 he gained a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School where Ruth Nye, one of Claudio Arrau’s finest students, recognized his talent and had a profound effect on Emmanuel’s developing musicality. On gaining a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music, Emmanuel won numerous awards including the college’s most sought after prize the Tagore Gold Medal as well as the Kendall Taylor Prize in the Beethoven Competition, the Esther Fisher Prize for best undergraduate and the Chappell Medal. While still at college, Emmanuel was chosen to perform Brahms’ First Concerto under Andrew Litton with the RCM Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his studies, he also participated in master-classes and worked with such eminent musicians as Nikolai Demidenko, Leon Fleisher, John Lill, Dominique Merlet, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Murray Perahia and András Schiff.

On graduating Emmanuel won the Dudley International Piano Competition and the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition - the resulting Wigmore Hall recital was recorded live and released on the Jaques Samuel Label:
“This disc is about Despax – he impresses – and he is all about the music.” International Record Review

Tickets: €25 Adults / €20 Members of the Foundation, Concessions
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org