Russian fireworks for piano and violin

“Russian fireworks”, a concert dedicated to Sergei Rachmaninoff, 75 years from his death with Manolis Neophytou (piano) and Sorin Alexandrou Horlea (violin) is organised at Technopolis 20, on Thursday, 28th of December 2017 at 7pm. The programme includes works by Sergei Rachmaninoff fragments from the ballet The Nutcracker by Piotr Tchaikovsky, based on the Christmas tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by German author E. T. A. Hoffmann and other works.

Entrance: €12/7 euro (students)
Reservations necessary at 70002420 (calls only).

Sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

A few words about the musicians

Manolis Neophytou performed his first solo recital at the age of eleven, just a few months before he entered the Moscow’s Central Special State Music School of the ex-Soviet Union, where he studied with Professor Rudolf Kehrer. Manolis, during the period 1996-2002 studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, with scholarship from Nicolas Economou Foundation. He also studied in Ecole Normale in Paris with a scholarship from the Albert Russell Foundation. In 2004, he has obtained the Masters in Piano Performance from the University of London with scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece. Manolis represented Cyprus at the Eurovision Classical Contests in Brussels (1992), Warsaw (1994) and Lisbon (1996), after winning the Cyprus National Competitions for young musicians. He received several prizes in several international piano competitions: 4th Prize at Senigallia International Piano Competition (Italy, 1994), 1st Prize at the Inter-Mediterranean Music Festival (Palermo, Italy, 1995), and 2nd Prize at the Giorgos Thimis Piano Competition (Megaron Mousikis, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2002). His performance activities include solo recitals and concerts in Germany, Greece, Russia, Poland, Italy, Hungary, France, Ireland, U.K., Korea, South Africa and Cyprus. He performed, as a soloist, with many orchestras, as the State Orchestra of Cyprus, the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the Symphonic State Orchestra of Rostov (Russia), the Symphonic Orchestra of Czestochowa (Poland), the Chamber Orchestra of Palermo (Italy), the Goldsmiths Orchestra of London, the Budapest Concert Orchestra. He taught in master classes in Cyprus and the University of South Africa (UNISA). Homage to Greek Music is the title of his first CD, which was published in 2006 and received a very good review from Mikis Theodorakis. He has also written music for the documentary film by Alessia de Ninno, which received a prize from the NFT (National Film Theatre) of London. He is teaching piano in European University of Cyprus and in the state music Lyceum in Limassol.

Sorin Alexandru Horlea was born in Bucharest in 1975 and started the violin at the age of 8. He graduated from "George Enescu Music High-School" where he studied under maestro Octav Savitchi and "Ciprian Porumbescu Music University" where his Professor was maestro Daniel Podlovschi. He took part in summer-courses with Viktor Pikaizen and Eugen Sarbu. In 1997 he won the third prize at the George Enescu Childhood Memories contest in Bucharest. During his university studies he played in the "Radio Chamber Orchestra", "Philarmonia Chamber Orchestra" and in Bucharest Opera but mainly in "George Enescu Philharmonic". In 2000 he moved to Lebanon to fulfil his position in Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra", where he became the assistant concert master. In 2005 he moved to Cyprus and since then is a member of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He is also working as an associate teacher of the Cyprus Youth Orchestra. He performed lots of concerts and recitals as a soloist and in various chamber groups in Romania, France, Netherlands, Lebanon and Cyprus. Sorin also performs concerts in other styles including jazz and folk. He is member of "Cyprus String Quartet", also member of folk band "Danube Quartet". He performs regularly contemporary music as he is a resident member of the Avaton Festival and Chronos Ensamble. Sorin is playing on a modern violin by Stephan Sultanian. He has a web page www.youtube.com/sorinestera where one can listen many samples of his live concerts.