Piano Concert 'Homage to Bach'

The 4th Bach Birthday Festival, organised by Paphos Music Lovers, presents a piano concert with Ga-lina Dimova, Romeo Smilkov and Nicola Georgiev. The concert will take place at Technopolis 20, on Tuesday, 17th of March 2020, at 8pm.

The musicians will present a pleasant and exciting programme, which focuses on the transcriptions of J.S. Bach's orchestral, organ and choral works for solo, four and six hands. There will be a short introduction with a presentation, explaining and illustrating why these particular transcriptions have been chosen. The main attraction is the Brandenburg Concerto No.5 for four hands, a transcription which is new and has been done by Eleonor Bindman.

Programme:
• Aria from the Clavier Concerto in F minor (transcribed by Nikolay Stoykov)
• Organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor (transcribed by Liszt)
• Prelude and Fugue in C minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1
• Andante from Organ Sonata No.4, BWV 528 (transcribed by Stradal)
• Siciliano from the Flute Sonata No.2 (transcribed by Wilhelm Kempff)
• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (arranged by Myra Hess)
• The Brandenburg Concerto No.5 (arranged by Eleonor Bindman)
• Trio Sonata BWV 530 (arranged for 6 hands by Wielmann)

Entrance: €15 (membership cards not valid)
Reservations necessary at 70002420 (calls only).

A few words about the musicians
Prof. Dr. Romeo Smilkov (piano) was born in 1960 in Chirpan, Bulgaria. A graduate of the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia, he studied piano with Prof. Luba Encheva and Prof. Milena Mollova. He also attended a master class with Prof. Vera Gornostaeva (Moscow) at the Varna Festival in Bulgaria. He won international and national prizes such as 1st Prize of the Salerno Piano Competition in Italy (1979); 2nd Prize of the Razgrad Piano Competition, Bulgaria (1984) and 3rd Prize of the Liszt-Bartok Competition (1989) in Sofia. Romeo Smilkov has given more than 900 concerts in Bulgaria and in eleven countries of Europe and Asia (Russia, Japan, China and others). He appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras in Bulgaria and abroad. Since 1991, Romeo Smilkov has been teaching piano at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria where he is a Piano Professor. In 2012, he obtained his PhD for the theoretical research on the piano compositions of the Bulgarian composer Nikolay Stoykov. Romeo Smilkov is one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. His vast repertoire spans from Frescobaldi to Ligeti. He is a passionate performer of contemporary Bulgarian composers such as Dimitar Nenov (c.1902-1953), Pancho Vladigerov (1899-1978), Lazar Nikolov (1922-2005), Ivan Spassov (1934-1996), Nikolay Stoykov (1936), Vladimir Pantchev (1949), Georgi Arnaudov (1957). Romeo Smilkov presented for a first time in Bulgaria compositions by the Austrian composer Christian Utz and the Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Ciurlionis. He released three solo albums for recording companies such as the American MMO, the Danish label Danacord Records and others. Prof. Smilkov has held piano master classes at the Music Academy of Gdansk in Poland, G. Tartini Conservatory in Trieste - Italy, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania; Music Department of Istanbul Technical University, Turkey; Harbin University in China, Academy of Arts in Iasi, Romania; Technopolis in Pafos, Cyprus; Academy of Music in Wroclaw, Poland and others.

Dr. Galina Dimova-Georgieva (piano) studied piano at the Hristina Morfova Music Lyceum in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. She graduated in 1990 from the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Art in Plovdiv with an M.A. in Music Education and Piano Pedagogy. In 2017, Galina obtained a PhD, focusing on the piano compositions of the Cypriot pianist and composer Nicolas Economou under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Romeo Smilkov. She has presented her work at the International Scientific Conference “Art and Education” in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2014); ”Modus-Modi-Modality”- European University, Nicosia (2017); Moesgaard Museum – Aarhus, Denmark (2017); National Academy of Music – Sofia, Bulgaria (2017); ECMTA Autumn Gathering – European University, Nicosia (2018). She has made multiple publications in English and Bulgarian. Galina performs extensively as a soloist and is an avid chamber musician. She collaborated with the video artist Yiannos Economou as a composer. Galina is the Head of Music at The International School of Paphos and teaches the piano at Paphos Music Lyceum.

Nicola Georgiev (piano) was born in 2001 in Paphos. He has been studying piano since 2005 with the renowned Bulgarian teacher Ivelina Rouseva. Nicola is a laureate of the Second Prize at the International Piano Competition “Andrey Stoyanov” in Sofia in 2018. His highly expressive performance brought him also the Special Prize for a performance of Franz Liszt’s work. In 2018, Nicola attained his first Soloist Diploma - ABRSM Diploma in Piano Performance. In addition, he has passed ABRSM Grade 8 in piano and Trinity Grade 7 in music theory, both with a distinction. Nicola has given two solo recitals in 2017 and 2018 and has performed at numerous concerts and festivals in Cyprus such as “Piano Solo”, “Young Orpheus”, “Music for Dragana” and others. As a child, he performed the music of the documentary “Cementography” (2015) of Nicolas Iordanou and Sylvia Nicolaides. Nicola is currently a final year A Level student at The International School of Paphos. He was recently accepted at the well-known Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London where he will study piano performance.