Pierre-Laurent Aimard & Tamara Stefanovich

10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival

The 10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival will culminate with a concert by the legendary Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich. Partners in music as well as in life, Aimard and Stefanovich are renowned for their spectacular virtuosity and piercing intelligence. For their concert at The Shoe Factory, on Sunday 14 October 2018, 8:30pm, they will perform piano works – solo and four-hands – by Vassos Nicolaou, George Benjamin, György Ligeti, Elliott Carter, Steingrimur Rohloff, John Woolrich, Marco Stroppa, York Höller, and Yihan Chen.

PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD piano

Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career.

Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod and in London with Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks included winning the First Prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition at the age of 16 and being appointed, three years later, by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble intercontemporain's first solo pianist.

Aimard has collaborated closely and performed the premieres of many leading composers including Kurtág, Stockhausen, Boulez, Carter, Birtwistle and George Benjamin. Through his professorship at the Hochschule Köln as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and very personal light on music of all periods.

Recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award (2005) and named ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ by Musical America (2007), Pierre-Laurent Aimard appears every season throughout the world with major orchestras under such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Eötvös, Sir Simon Rattle and Vladimir Jurowski. He has been invited to curate, direct and perform in a number of residencies, with projects at Carnegie Hall, New York's Lincoln Center, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Berlin's Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Tanglewood Festival and London's Southbank Centre. Aimard was the Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to 2016.

Recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts with Boston Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and a European tour with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, recitals in Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, St Petersburg, Paris, Vienna, New York and at the new Boulezsaal in Berlin, and, as part of his three-year tenure as Artist-in-Residence at Southbank Centre, performances with Aurora Orchestra (Messiaen), Australian Chamber Orchestra (Mozart), Philharmonia Orchestra (Ravel) and curating a whole weekend dedicated to the music of Ligeti with whom he had a long association.

Aimard’s extended discography includes a number of award winning albums, including Bach's Art of Fugue for Deutsche Grammophon (Diapason d'Or and Choc du Monde de la Musique), Ives’ Concord Sonata and Songs (Grammy award), and his most recent recording of Murail and Benjamin with the Bayerischer Rundfunk (2017 Gramophone award in the Contemporary category). In recognition of a life devoted to the service of music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard was awarded the prestigious 2017 International Ernest von Siemens Music Prize.

TAMARA STEFANOVICH piano

Known for her captivating interpretations in a wide repertoire, Tamara Stefanovich appears in some of the world’s most prestigious concert venues, including the Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore Halls. She is featured in international festivals such as La Roque d’Antheron, Ravenna, Salzburger Festspiele, Styriarte Graz and Beethovenfest Bonn and she has appeared with such orchestras as the Cleveland and Chicago Symphonies, London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, WDR Sinfoniesorchester Köln, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Recent highlights include her debut with the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, European tours with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under Vladimir Jurowski and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under George Benjamin, performing at the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), in Aldeburgh and Birmingham, Abrahamsen’s Concerto for Left Hand with the London Sinfonietta, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 with the Belgrade Philharmonic and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto with Saarländisches Staatsorchester Saarbrücken, as well as recitals in Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Monte Carlo, Southbank Centre, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Edinburgh International Festival and Lucerne Festival.

Tamara Stefanovich has collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Vänskä and Susanna Mälkki, as well as leading composers including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös and György Kurtág. Her discography includes a number of acclaimed recordings, including the Grammy-nominated recording for Deutsche Grammophon of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra, and more recently, of Kurtág’s Quasi una fantasia and Double concerto with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw/Jean-Guihen Queyras for ECM’s complete recording of works for ensemble, which has just been released and received a 5* review in The Guardian.

Information & Tickets:
Information: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel. (+357) 22-663871 / www.pharosartsfoundation.org
Tickets: €15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website or Tel. (+357) 22-663871(Monday-Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)