Wolfgang Schröder (violin) & Florian Uhlig (piano)

The Pharos Arts Foundation presents a recital with Wolfgang Schröder, Concertmaster of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Florian Uhlig, hailed by the Musical Opinion magazine as an one of the most individual and imaginative young pianists of our time. The recital will take place on Wednesday 21 March 2012, at The Shoe Factory / 8:30pm, and will include works by Mozart, Ravel and Richard Strauss

Wolfgang Schröder / violin
“…wonderfully elevated quality of Wolfgang Schröder’s violin…” The Strad

Born into a South German family, Wolfgang Schröder's earliest studies began with his parents. In 1980, Ana Chumachenko became his teacher and played a decisive role in his development as a violinist.

At the early age of 17, Schröder won the first prize at the German state competition Jugend musiziert (Youth makes music) and subsequently a scholarship at the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA). He has performed with Yehudi Menuhin and Alberto Lysy, both as soloist and chamber musician, throughout the world, in venues such as the Barbican Centre in London and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

After graduating from IMMA , he continued his studies at the Mozarteum University of Music in Salzburg under Prof. Sandor Vegh, and thereafter at the Mannes School of Music in New York under Prof. Aaron Rosand. Wolfgang Schröder’s solo career has included performances with the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Symphony Orchestra, Talich Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Rubinstein Philharmony Lodz, Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Nuremberg Symphony, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Israel Soloists Ensemble, Athens State Orchestra, etc. He was also the artistic director of the European Community Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) from 1993 until 1995, and has performed a number of highly acclaimed concert tours worldwide. He has collaborated with conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreko, Daniel Raiskin, Simon Gaudenz, Marc Kadim, to name just a few.

As soloist and chamber player, Wolfgang Schröder has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Vienna Konzerthaus, as part of the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center and the Frick Collection Museum in New York, the Masters Series in London's Wigmore Hall, and the Athens Megaron. Schröder’s chamber music partners have included artists like Wenzel Fuchs, Eduard Brunner, Charles Neidich, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Cyprien Katsaris, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen, Daniel Raiskin, Ramon Jaffe, Levon Chilingirian and Gustav Rivinius. He also has been invited to major chamber music festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Open Chamber Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove (England), the Moritzburg Festival in Germany, the West Cork Festival in Ireland, the Umea and Bostad Festivals (Sweden), the International Music Festival Middelburg (Holland), the International Festival of Echternach (Luxemburg) and the Ojika Festival, Japan.
As an active chamber musician, he founded, in 1992, the Belcanto String Trio and from 1996 to 2005 he regularly performed as the violinist of the Trio Parnassus. In September 2001 the Trio Parnassus received the prestigious Echo Classic Award for their complete recording of the Schumann piano trios. Since 1998 he has been artistic director of the Camerata Stuttgart. Appearances with the Camerata Stuttgart include performances in prestigious concert halls like the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Megaron Music Hall of Athens, Liederhalle of Stuttgart and the Dortmund Opera House.

Wolfgang Schröder has recorded for the MDG, Divox, Ars Production, Thorofon, Symicon and CPO labels. Since 2005 he is the First Concertmaster of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He plays on a violin 1857 by Jean Baptist Vuillaume.

Florian Uhlig / piano
"Florian Uhlig gave a unique piano recital and was celebrated enthusiastically by his audience before the interval already. [...] Sheer virtuosity, though without showmanship, coupled with so much musicality as only the greatest of artists possess." Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt

Florian Uhlig’s musical personality ranges between introversion and emphasis, his playing is marked by curiosity for all facets of music, passion informs his activities in whatever is related to musical, pianistic expression and is reflected in many different forms. The mental restlessness, the serious curiosity to get to the bottom of things, is Florian Uhlig’s essential talent, along with and prior to his effortless virtuosity; his activity and creativity are driven by the desire to trace the interrelations of the individual works with their historic and current reality. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present, but contains a good deal more than merely the well-known “war-horses” of the literature.

Florian Uhlig is active wherever composers formulate something of interest, where the handicraft of playing piano can and must transform itself into feeling and meaning. Thinking and playing according to set patterns does not stand a chance. When putting together recital programs, he permits himself eccentricities, enthusiastically lets himself get carried away, casts the familiar together with the unfamiliar – and penetrates to the core of the music with an always reliable sense of style, affording the delight of an ingenious musical discourse.

Florian Uhlig was born in Düsseldorf and gave his first piano recital at the age of twelve. He studied in London with Peter Feuchtwanger and continued his studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he now lives, as well as in Berlin.

Florian Uhlig’s orchestra debut was at the Barbican in London in 1997. Since then, his busy concert schedule has taken him to major concert stages in Berlin, Brussels, Caracas, Dresden, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Cape Town, Cologne, London, Luxemburg, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Salzburg, Seoul, Venice, Washington and Vienna. Florian Uhlig has played concerts with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Recently, he made guest appearances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela performing Krzysztof Penderecki’s Piano Concerto conducted by the composer. Invitations to festivals led him to appear at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Chamber Music Festival in Elmau Castle, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, the MDR Summer of Music, France Musique Paris, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Vienna Festival Weeks and many more.

Along with his work as a soloist, Florian Uhlig is also a sought-after chamber musician and song pianist. He was the last partner of legendary baritone Hermann Prey and has worked together with Mirijam Contzen, Alban Gerhardt, Franz Hawlata, Roberto Saccá and Ingolf Turban, the Consortium Classicum, the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin, as well as with actors Christoph Bantzer, Cornelia Froboess, Gudrun Landgrebe and Nina Hoger.

Since 2008 Florian Uhlig has been Artistic Director of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival.

PROGRAMME:
W.A. Mozart (1756 – 1791) Sonata for piano and violin No. 32 in B-flat major KV 454 (1784)
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major (1927)
Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 (1888)

Ticket Prices:
Adults: EUR25
Friends and Supporters of the Pharos Arts Foundation / Concessions: EUR20

Box Office: Tel: 7000 9304 - opening hours: 9.30 am - 11.30 am / www.pharostickets.org