Zoe Nicolaidou - George Georgiou - Annini Tsiouti

As part of its Cyprus Artists Series, the Pharos Arts Foundation presents a concert, on Monday 24 November 2014 at The Shoe Factory / 8:30pm, with the international rising opera star Cypriot soprano Zoe Nicolaidou, clarinettist George Georgiou and pianist Annini Tsiouti. The three artists will join forces in an extremely interesting and diverse programme of chamber music, songs and Lieder by Schubert, Spohr, Villa-Lobos, Weiner, Lovreglio, Guyot (world premiere).

Inaugurated in 2007, the Pharos’ Cyprus Artists Series is presented concurrently with its internationally established annual Concert and Recital Series. The Series is dedicated to the promotion and support of leading musicians of Cypriot ancestry, as well as musicians residing and pursuing a career in Cyprus. In keeping with the Foundation's mission to promote artistic excellence, the Cyprus Artists Series aims to offer Cyprus audiences the opportunity to experience fine performances, while offering Cypriot musicians a platform for musical exchange and dialogue.

ZOE NICOLAIDOU soprano
"An ideal cast is the Susanna of Zoe Nicolaidou: attractive and full of poetry, her voice fills the entire hall, and her aria of roses is the real climax of a stunning performance.”
DER NEUE MERKER

The Cypriot soprano Zoe Nicolaidou studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna – Magister Artium, and subsequently completed the
Paris Opera’s Young Artists Program (Atelier Lyrique) where she was trained from 2009 until 2011. She has performed under the baton of such conductors as Philippe Jordan (Puccini’s Suor Angelica), Bernharndt Kontarsky (Fenelon’s Faust), Thomas Hengelbrock (Gluck’s Orpheus und Eurydike), Dan Ettinger (Le Nozze di Figaro), alongside Erwin Schrott and Dorothea Röschmann. In 2011, she received the award for the most promising young singer of the season, Le Prix Lyrique du cercle Carpeaux.

During the 2012/13 season she was invited back to the Opéra Bastille, under the baton of Evelino Pido, to perform the role of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, and made her debut at the Rudolphinum in Prague in the world premiere of Kabat's piece for string quartet and soprano Misterium Fidei. She performed at Musikverein Wien, appeared in a New Year's concert at the Montpellier Opéra as Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as in a series of concerts with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, and in Bach's B minor Mass with the Real Filharmonia de Galicia under the baton of Antoni Ros-Marba.

In the last few seasons, Zoe Nicolaidou has interpreted the roles of Amor (Gluck’s Orpheus und Eurydike) at Palais Garnier, which was followed by a tour at the Lincoln Center New York; Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Festival Oper Klosterneuburg; Serpetta (Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera); Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) and Flower girl (Wagner’s Parsifal) at Theater Aachen; Mae Jones (Kurt Weill’s Street Scene); the Nymph (Peri’s Euridice) at the Kammeroper Wien; Mrs. Gobineau (Menotti’s The Medium); Amore (Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea) in Schönbrunner Theater and Popelka (Martinu’s Veselohra na moste) at the Festival Retz in Austria.

Equally successful in recital and concert, she has appeared at Palais Garnier, Musikverein Wien, Rudolfinum Prague, Villa Medicis (Rome), Montpellier Opéra Corum, Festival Echternach, Amphitheatre (Bastille), Festival La Roque d’Antheron, Wratislavia Cantans Festival, Wiltz Festival. Her concert repertoire covers oratorio and symphonic works such as: Brahms’ Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No.4, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat, Haydn’s Stabat Mater and Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers, Bach’s B minor Mass, Schumann’s Der Rose Pilgefahrt. At the 30 Years AROP Gala Concert in Palais Garnier, Nicolaidou was selected to sing in Williams' Serenade to Music conducted by Philippe Jordan. She has also sung a number of world premieres including Piotr Moss' Et apres eux le silence in France and Kabat’s Misterium Fidei in Luxembourg.

Zoe Nicoladou has studied classical singing at the University for Music and dramatic arts in Vienna (Magister Artium). She is currently working under the guidance of Wessela Zlateva. She is a first prize-winner of the Schlossoper Haldenstein International Singing Competition 2007 which subsequently led to the role of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Haldenstein Open-air Festival. She is also a finalist of the Hilde Zadek Singing Competition 2007 in Vienna and Laureate of the Prix Lyrique du cercle Carpeaux 2011 in France. She has recently received the 2013 Kyrenia Opera Award.

Future engagements of Zoe Nicolaidou include the role of Titania in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, with the Ensemble de Lausanne, a new invitation to perform Amor in Orpheus und Euridike at the Palais Garnier, followed by her debut with the same role at Teatro Real Madrid, Pamina (Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), Mahler's Symphony No.4 and Ravel's Mélodies Hébraiques in Portugal.

GEORGE GEORGIOU clarinet
George Georgiou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1984. He began his clarinet lessons at the age of 9 with Dusko Zarkovic, and later on, with Kleanthis Zambakides and Rocco Sbartella. He holds degrees from City University (BMus and MA in Music Performance Studies) and he studied the clarinet with Julian Farrell and Joy Farral at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD). As a soloist he has appeared with CUSO and the Moscow Vistuosi and he has performed many recitals in Cyprus, UK, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Malta and USA. Georgiou has collaborated with several renowned musicians around the globe, including Vladimir Spivakov, Movses Pogossian, Rohan de Saram, the Chilingirian String Quartet and the Apple Hill String Quartet. His interest in contemporary music had led him to give a number of Cyprus premieres. He has also collaborated with many young Cypriot composers in their new works, of which he has given the world premieres, and several works for clarinet and bass clarinet have been dedicated to him. He is a member of the Evohe Wind Quintet, Claretini Quartet, Chronos Ensemble and a musician-in-residence at the Avaton Contemporary Music Festival in Limassol.

ANNINI TSIOUTI piano
Annini Tsiouti started taking piano lessons at an early age at Ethnikon Odeion Kyprou. After obtaining her diploma she continued at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she studied piano and chamber music. She was awarded the Ville de Paris bursary for her studies at the Conservatoire Claude Debussy and she also studied Musicology at the Sorbonne University where she obtained her Masters degree specialising in the piano music of Nikos Skalkottas. She has appeared in many international festivals and has given concerts in Europe and the Middle East, as a soloist, accompanist or as part of chamber music groups. She has been living and working in Cyprus since 2008 where she is still actively involved in the contemporary music scene and has given first performances of many works by Cypriot composers.

PROGRAMME:

F. Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D.965

D. Lovreglio (1841-1907)
Fantasia on La Traviata for clarinet and piano

V. Guyot
Liber baruch (World Premiere)

Interval

L. Spohr (1784-1859)
6 Deutsche Lieder, Op.103

L. Weiner (1885-1960)
Peregi Verbunk for clarinet and piano

H. Villa Lobos (1887-1959)
Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 (arr. Akis Pavlou)

Tickets:
€15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation

Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/Tickets_online.htm or Tel. 9666-9003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)