Open-air concert for Strings

The last concert of the 13th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival will take place at The Olive Grove in Delikipos and will feature a programme of string quintets by Mozart and Brahms with violinists Boris Brovtsyn and Levon Chilingirian, violists Diemut Poppen, William Coleman and Sam Barsegian, and cellist Alexander Chaushian. The Olive Grove is a world-class, open-air concert venue, which aims to deliver relaxed and informal events so that intimacy is developed between the artists and the audience. The venue is surrounded by the idyllic forest of Delikipos and is adorned with wooden decks, shallow pools of water, zen landscaping and a uniquely atmospheric lighting.

Boris Brovtsyn / violin

Boris Brovtsyn was born in 1977. After graduating from Moscow´s Central Music School in 1994, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he studied with Maya Glezarova. During his time there he became a laureate of international competitions, such as Georg Kulenkampf (1994, Cologne), Transnet (1996, Pretoria) and Yehudi Menuhin (1998). In 2001 he was a finalist at the Queen Elizabeth Violin Competition and won the 2001 Reuters Prize. The following year he won the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition.

In 1998, Brovtsyn made his UK debut with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba. In 2000, he became a student of David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and in 2004, he won the GSMD´s highest award, the Gold Medal (past winners include Jacqueline du´Pre, Tasmin Little and Bryn Terfel).

As a soloist, Boris Brovtsyn has collaborated with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Gerd Albrecht, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Arvo Volmer to name but a few, and appeared with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre National de Belgique, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille and Moscow State Chamber Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at festivals including the Verbier, Lugano, Edinburgh, Oxford Chamber Music, and Ryedale.

Recently he has played with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva and Warsaw, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Utah Symphony Orchestra, and he has participated in the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival. Future engagements include among others performances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Vassily Sinaisky, with the Chamber Orchestra of the Enescu at the Festival “George Enescu” in Bucharest, with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra under Jakub Hrusa and a tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Antoni Wit.

Levon Chilingirian / violin

Levon Chilingirian was born in Cyprus to Armenian parents and was introduced to music from a very early age through his pianist mother and violinist great uncle. When the Chilingirian family immigrated to London in 1960, Levon concentrated on the violin, studying at the Royal College of Music. His early influences in music were his uncle, the violinist Manoug Parikian, his teacher Hugh Bean, musicologist Hans Keller, and the Amadeus Quartet.

His career as a recitalist was launched by winning the first prize in the 1969 BBC Beethoven Competition, followed by the Munich Duo first prize in 1971. The same year, he formed one of the most active and celebrated string quartets on the international scene, the Chilingirian Quartet. The music director of the talented Swedish string ensemble Camerata Roman, Levon Chilingirian has appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bournemouth, Liverpool Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, and Russian National Orchestras, received the Cobbett Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society's chamber music award and, in January 2000, an OBE in the Queen's Honours List for his services to music.

Diemut Poppen / viola

Diemut Poppen is one of the finest viola players of her generation. Born in a musical family, Poppen studied in Germany, USA and Paris with some of the greatest viola players of her time, including Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Bruno Giuranna and Peter Schidlof. Diemut Poppen has been awarded several scholarships and prizes, among them the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the renowned European Music Prize.

As a soloist, Diemut Poppen has performed in major music centres all over the world including the Carnegie Hall in New York, Barbican in London, Philharmonie in Berlin and Mozarteum in Salzburg and has worked with musicians like Claudio Abbado, Leonidas Kavakos and Viktor Tretyakov. Poppen was for 15 years the principal viola and a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Presently, she is professor of viola and chamber music in Detmold, Germany and at the renowned Escuela di Reina Sofia in Madrid, giving, at the same time several international master-classes. She is artistic director of the Thuringische Sommerakademie for Chamber Music and of the Detmolder Sommerakademie. She has also acted as artistic director of the chamber music seria Osnabrucker Kammermusiktage in Osnabruck, Germany, for several years.

Several composers have written new pieces for Diemut Poppen, including solo works, as well as concertos, sonatas and chamber music. She has performed the viola concertos of Mikhail Pletnev, Vassily Lobanov and the work Styxx by G.Kancheli for viola, symphony orchestra and choir. Diemut Poppen has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Cappricio, Live classics, EMI, Tudor, Ediphone, Ondine, among others. Cyprus is Diemut’s favourite country and she visits the island quite regularly.

William Coleman / viola

William Coleman has made many appearances as a chamber musician and soloist, and as the violist of the acclaimed Berlin-based Kuss Quartet. His concert schedule has included concerts at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals, as well as at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Theatre du Chatelet Paris, Washington Library of Congress and Carnegie Hall. William studied at the University “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl and Veronika Hagen, and at Boston's New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. During this time he also received coaching from the Hungarian pianist Ferenc Rados.

He has performed with some of the world's finest musicians, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christian Tetzlaff, Yuri Bashmet, Miklos Perenyi, Kim Kashkashian, Boris Pergamenschikov and Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2002, William joined the Kuss Quartet. Since then, the quartet has been a recipient of numerous prizes. They took on the role of cultural ambassador for the President of Germany, traveling with him on the much-discussed first visit to Israel. The Kuss Quartet has recorded numerous CDs for Sony/BMG and ECM. They have also been recorded worldwide for radio and television. Most recently the quartet broadcast for the BBC, live from the Frick Collection in New York.

Samvel Barsegian / viola

Samvel Barsegian was born in Yerevan/Armenia in 1971. He started to play violin at the age of six, and in 1987, he switched to the viola. He was accepted by the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1989, where he won the First Prize in the National Competition. Between 1991 and 1997, he studied at the Freiburg School of Music in Germany with Professor Kim Kashkashian. From 1995 until 1998 Samvel was taking viola and conducting lessons with Rudolf Barshai. At the same time, he actively participated in a number of master-classes by legendary musicians such as Janosh Starker, Josef Silverstein and Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1998 Samvel was appointed principal violist of the Flemish Fhilarmonic orchestra in Antwerpen/Belgium, a position he held for many years. In 2008 he moved to Lisbon/Portugal, where he was appointed principal violist of the Gulbenkian orchestra. Samvel Barsegian has conducted a number of European orchestras, and he is the founder of the Lisbon Chamber Orchestra, of which he is the chief conductor and artistic director.

Alexander Chaushian / cello

First Prize winner of the Premio Mozart Competition in Verona, Italy in 1990 and the International Music Competition in Holland in 1992, Alexander Chaushian also received the Guilhermina Suggia Gift in London - a grant awarded to outstanding string players - on three occasions. In 1997, he was awarded the Orchestra of New England Soloist Prize, as well as the First Summis Auspiciis Prize of Young Concert Artists in New York. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Anna Instone Memorial Award sponsored by Capital Radio. In 2001, he was the joint recipient of the Pierre Fournier Award, while in 2002, he won the Third Prize in the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Chaushian was also awarded the Third Prize and the Special Prize given by the Munich Chamber Orchestra at the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD in Germany in September 2005.

Alexander Chaushian has appeared in prestigious venues throughout the world, and as a soloist, he has played with a number of renowned orchestras, including the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and at the Bruchnerhaus in Linz, the London Mozart Players and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Royal National Orchestra of Belgium, Les Solistes Européens de Luxembourg in a gala concert conducted by Yehudi Menuhin, the Boston Pops Orchestra at Boston Symphony Hall, and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Chaushian has given recitals at the Harrogate Festival in England, the Kuhmo International Festival in Finland, La Jolla Festival in the USA, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and in Montpellier as recipient of the Beracasa Foundation Prize of the Radio-France and in Montpellier Festival. Since 2002, he has been acting as the artistic director of the Orpheus & Bacchus Festival in Bordeaux in France and the International Pharos Chamber Music Festival in Cyprus.
In 2006, Alexander Chaushian recorded Dmitry Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata for Performance Channel Television, as well as Wim Zwaag’s Cello Concerto with the Núrnberger Symphoniker. His solo debut recording for the BIS label of Weinberg’s Sonatas, in which he is partnered with Yevgeny Sudbin, was released to much acclaim. It was recently followed by another highly acclaimed CD for BIS, which includes cello sonatas by Rachmaninov, Borodin and Shostakovich.

Programme:

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
String Quintet No.2 in G major, Op.111 (1890)
Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Levon Chilingirian / violin, William Coleman / viola, Sam Barsegian / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello

Interval

W.A. Mozart (1756 –1791)
String Quintet No.3 in C major, K.515 (1787)
Levon Chilingirian / violin, Boris Brovtsyn / violin, Diemut Poppen / viola, William Coleman / viola, Alexander Chaushian / cello

TICKETS
Ticket price: €10
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org