Since its inception 17 years ago the International Pharos Chamber Music Festival has established itself as the most important annual classical music event in Cyprus, and has gained an international reputation for its quality concerts and magnificent settings. Guided by a visionary spirit and dedicated to artistic excellence, the Festival is now recognised as one of Europe's preeminent music festivals, having placed Cyprus on the international cultural map and garnering enthusiastic acclaim from music lovers all over the world, while it has made chamber music more accessible to the general public by presenting exciting programmes and performances of the highest level by some of the world’s most renowned soloists. The Festival also maintains a strong tradition of community service, with educational concerts organized for students of public schools and a number of master-classes for young instrumentalists.
On 15 - 20 of June 2017, the 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival welcomes to Cyprus some of the most remarkable artists on the international music scene, for an extensive week of music-making in the unique venue of the Royal Manor House in Kouklia – one of the finest surviving monuments of Frankish architecture in Cyprus and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Exploring the many forms of the chamber music genre, the Festival will encompass an impressive array of instrumental combinations and repertoire, ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century, as well as a number of rarely performed masterpieces.
Location:
Royal Manor House, Kouklia
Kouklia, Pafos, Cyprus
Information:
Pharos Arts Foundation
Tel: +357 22 663 871
Website: www.pharosartsfoundation.org
Tickets: 10 Euro
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/Tickets_online.htm or Tel. 9666-9003 (Monday - Friday 10:00-15:00)
Tickets also available from: Kyriakou Fullpage Bookshops: 30 Ellados Ave., 8020 Pafos, Tel: +357 26 822 850.
The Artists:
Piano: Sergei Babayan, Vadym Kholodenko, Yevgeny Sudbin, Vitaly Pisarenko, Christian Westergaard
Violin: Boris Brovtsyn, Alena Baeva, Nicolas Dautricourt, Clara-Jumi Kang, Levon Chilingirian, Monika Urbonaite
Viola: Jennifer Stumm, Diemut Poppen, David Abrahamyan
Cello: Alexander Chaushian, Marc Coppey, Tim Park
Flute: Massimo Mercelli
Guitar: Cyprus Guitar trio
Soprano: Susanne Elmark
The ancient village of Kouklia near Pafos, will be specifically transformed by the Festival to a first class recital hall. Some of the world’s greatest musicians will join forces for six concerts, between 15 and 20 June 2017, in an impressive array of works.
The Venue:
The Royal Manor House in Kouklia is one of the finest surviving monuments of Frankish architecture on the island and an unparalleled venue for intimate chamber music performances. The building also houses an archaeological museum, which records the rich history of human activity in the region from about 2800 BC to the present day. The Royal Manor House, which is part of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation’s “Aphrodite’s Cultural Route”, is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Palaipaphos, or Old Paphos, was a city-kingdom of Cyprus and one of the most celebrated pilgrimage centres of the ancient Greek world. It was the site of a famous sanctuary of Aphrodite, the oldest remains of which date back to the 12th century BC. Join us in a leisurely exploration of the history and cultural heritage of the western region of Cyprus.
Directions:
How to get to Kouklia from Lefkosia/ Lemesos:
On the motorway towards Pafos, take the exit ‘Kouklia-Archimandrita’ (this is the next exit after the exit of Aphrodite Hills). Turn left and drive straight for a few metres until there is a stop sign (facing the sea).
Turn right and follow the main road. Keep following the main road until you see a sign Kouklia and from there, turn right and go up the little hill. You are at Kouklia! If you get there a bit early you will get the chance to see the archaeological site in daylight, get your tickets and enjoy a glass of wine before the concert!
The Festival will host one of the most renowned names of the great Russian piano school, Sergei Babayan, claimed for the immediacy, sensitivity and depth of his interpretations, the rare emotional intensity and bold energy of his performances and his extraordinary mastery in exploring stylistically diverse repertoire. Babayan was the first pianist from the former USSR who was able to compete without government sponsorship after the collapse of the system, and immediately after his first trip outside of the USSR, he won consecutive first prizes in several major international competitions including the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Hamamatsu Piano Competition and the Busoni International Piano Competition. The Festival will also feature one of the most musically dynamic and technically gifted performers of the new generation of pianists, the Gold Medallist of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Vadym Kholodenko, who is internationally recognised for his powerful and exhilarating performances that “show the guts of a true super-artist”. Alongside them, the Festival is thrilled to present the return visit of the amazing Yevgeny Sudbin, hailed by The Telegraph as ‘potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century’ and by the International Record Review as ‘one of the most important pianistic talents of our time’.
Besides the Festival’s regular guests – distinguished cellist and artistic director of the Festival Alexander Chaushian, the impressive Russian violinist Boris Brovtsyn, violinists Levon Chilingirian and Monika Urbonaite, violists Diemut Poppen and David Abrahamyan, and cellist Tim Park, this year’s Festival will also host for the first time the exceptional violinist Alena Baeva, who is fast emerging as one of the finest violinists of her generation, having already carved out an impressive career to date working regularly as a soloist with some of the world’s most important orchestras, one of the most brilliant and engaging French violinists of our times – Nicolas Dautricourt, who has been voted "Classical Discovery of the Year" at the Midem in Cannes and awarded the Sacem Georges Enesco Prize, the prodigious violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, prize winner in several major competitions, including, Tibor Varga, Seoul, Hannover and Indianapolis violin competitions, and the fascinating violist Jennifer Stumm, recognised as one of the world’s dynamic and creative advocates for her instrument, whose TED talk “The Imperfect Instrument” was named editor’s pick of all talks on ted.com.
The 17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival will also welcome the return visits of French cellist Marc Coppey, who was discovered by Lord Yehudi Menuhin at a very early age and who is nowadays considered one of the leading cellists in the world, the renowned Italian flutist Massimo Mercelli, who is the dedicatee of numerous works by some of the most important contemporary composers including Philip Glass, Giovanni Sollima, Sofia Gubaidulina and Krzysztof Penderecki, and the newly founded Cyprus Guitar Trio, which comprises three renowned classical guitarists from Cyprus – Vasilios Avraam, George Christofi and Socrates Leptos.
Thursday, June 15, 2017, 20:30
To Tuesday, June 20, 2017
