Quartetto Prometeo

A collaboration between the San Fedele Foundation and the Pharos International Contemporary Music Festival towards a musical dramatization of Dante’s Divine Comedy with twelve world premieres by composers from all over Europe. Dante Alighieri Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy). The Divine Comedy, a great work of medieval literature, is a profound Christian vision of man's temporal and eternal destiny. On its most personal level, it draws on the poet's own experience of exile from his native city of Florence; on its most comprehensive level, it may be read as an allegory, taking the form of a journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. The poem amazes by its array of learning, its penetrating and comprehensive analysis of contemporary problems, and its inventiveness of language and imagery.

Winner of the 50th Prague Spring International Music Competition in May 1998, the Quartetto Prometeo was awarded, in the same competition, the Special Bärenreiter prize for best performance of Mozart's Quartet K 590 according with the original score, the City of Prague prize as best quartet and the Pro Harmonia Mundi prize.

The Quartetto Prometeo has been designated resident group at the Britten Pears Academy (1998) in Aldeburgh and was awarded the Thomastik Infeld prize at the Internationale Sommer Akademie Prag-Wien-Budapest-1999 for outstanding performance of a chamber music work and the second prize at the Concours International de Quatuors in Bordeaux. In 2000, the Quartetto Prometeo was awarded the Special Bärenreiter Prize at the renowned ARD Münich Competition. Since its inception, the Quartet have received many important scholarships from the Scuola di Musica of Fiesole and from the Accademia Chigiana of Siena, where in August 1995 they won the prestigious diploma of honour. In the next three years 2013-15 they will be quartet-in-residence at the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica Romana.

Quartetto Prometeo's brilliant international career include performances at the some of the most important music festivals and venues in the world, such as Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Wexford Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Roma, Théâtre in Bordeaux, Auditorium Musée d'Orsay in Paris, as well as tours in South America, The Netherlands...

One of the characteristics of the Prometeo is their constant research in putting together the classical repertoire and the new musical expressions of our time. Their close collaboration with the acclaimed composer Salvatore Sciarrino led him to dedicate two pieces to the Prometeo, his Esercizi di tre stili and his latest Quartet No.8, which was commissioned by the Società del Quartetto Milan, MaerzMusik Festival Berlin, Ultima Festival Oslo, Aldeburgh Festival, and recently recorded along with his latest works for string quartet. Since performing the Italian premiere of Târ, Quartetto Prometeo continues to collaborate with Ivan Fedele, and in 2011, they premiered Moroloja Kai Erotika for string quartet and voice commissioned by Accademia Filarmonica Romana for the Prometeo.

The concert of Quartetto Prometeo in Cyprus will depict a Musical Representation of Dante’s Divine comedy and will comprise twelve World Premieres by:

1) Vito Zuraj SLOVENIA
2) Manuel Rodriguez SPAIN
3) Antonin Servière FRANCE
4) Carlo Ciceri ITALY
5) Franco Venturini ITALY
6) Aurélien Dumont FRANCE
7) Mirtru Escalona VENEZUELA / FRANCE
8) Antonio Covello ITALY
9) Roberto Vetrano ITALY
10) Vittorio Montalti ITALY
11) Evis Sammoutis CYPRUS
12) Pasquale Corrado ITALY

Quartetto Prometeo
Giulio Rovighi / violin
Aldo Campagnari / violin
Massimo Piva / viola
Francesco Dillon / cello

Information & Tickets:
Information: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel. +35722663871 / www.pharosartsfoundation.org

Tickets: €20 Adults / €15 Members of the Foundation, Concessions

Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org

The event is part of the 4th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival
Having established itself as one of the most cutting-edge and innovative annual events in the Eastern Mediterranean, the International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival is already in its fourth year. The Festival is dedicated to the promotion of new music: The well-established masterpieces of the contemporary music literature of the 20th century as well as a great number of premieres by young leading composers from all over the world who have been commissioned by Pharos to write new works especially for this occasion. The Festival aims to provide a forum for composers and performers to advance and develop new projects and explore new sound worlds in chamber music settings. Its objective is also to endorse contemporary music to the general audience of Cyprus, and elsewhere, as this is the music of our times – it is directly linked with many forms of visual and creative arts, and sciences, and reflects the intimacy of the modern-day human spirit.

The 4th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival is certain to be a thrilling experience! It continues to diversify by presenting a number of exciting events, from 9 until 29 September 2012 and a seldom heard repertoire for strings, winds, voice, percussion, harp and accordion. Six of the finest contemporary ensembles in the world will present classical contemporary masterpieces by composers such as Schönberg, Stockhausen, Xenakis and Ligeti while they will simultaneously join forces with over 20 young, but internationally acclaimed composers from all over the world. Each of these composers has written a newly-commissioned work that will be given its world premiere during the Festival concerts.