Eight Musicians, One Concert

The Classical Music Concert Series Technopolis 20 Classics end this year with a unique concert, with eight brilliant musicians on the stage of Markideio Theatre in Paphos, on Thursday, 10th of December 2020, at 18:30pm.

The programme to be presented is the Octet in F major, D.803 by Franz Schubert and the Septet in E-flat major, op.20 by L.V.Beethoven.

Musicians participating are George Georiou (clarinet), Annita Skoutella (horn), Giovanni Galetti (bassoon), Wolfgang Schoeder (violin), Nicos Pittas (violin), Krzysztof Wrobel (viola), Jakub Otčenášek (cello), Nicos Ioannou (double bass).

The concert is part of the ‘Technopolis 20 Classics’, an exclusive project of classical music concert series, organised by Technopolis 20 and a private sponsor. High-quality classical music concerts are organised, supporting local talented musicians and hosting musicians from abroad. More information for past and future you can find in our website https://www.technopolis20.com/technopolis20-classics.

The production takes all the necessary precautions and follows the instructions announced by the government, in order to ensure your health and safety.

Entrance: €15/ €10 (students)

ONLY with presales. Tickets available at Technopolis 20 art centre. 

A ticket office will NOT OPERATE on the night of the event.

Opening hours: Monday - Saturday, 9am - 1pm

Information: 70002420

Organiser: Technopolis 20

Co-organiser: Municipality of Paphos

Supporter: Goethe-Institut Zypern

Sponsors: Deputy Ministry of Tourism, Vouni Panagia Winery, Red Rose Florist

A few words about the musicians

George Georgiou (clarinet) is hailed for his energetic and inspirational performances. The Cypriot clarinettist George Georgiou enjoys a career as a classical and contemporary clarinettist. He appeared in many solo concerts and recitals in Europe, Middle East and USA. He collaborated with some prominent musicians such as the legendary cellist Rohan de Saram, the Prazak Quartet, the Apple Hill String Quartet, the Chilingirian String Quartet, the violinist Movses Pogossian and he appeared as a soloist with the Commandaria Orchestra and Moscow Virtuosi under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov. In his research for new repertoire, George started commissioning works for clarinet and so far, he collaborated with the most dominant composers from Cyprus and abroad. He premiered several works featuring the clarinet with most of them being dedicated to him. He is a member of Georgiou Georgieva Duo, Lyrical Noise Ensemble, Evohe Wind Quintet, Chronos Contemporary Music Ensemble as well as musician in residence at the Avaton Contemporary Music Festival (Cyprus). He holds the position of clarinet professor at the University of Nicosia. He is the artistic director of Music at the Museum Concert Series and Georgiou and Friends concert Series as well as the founder of Cyprus Clarinet Studio. George is a graduate from City University, London, where he studied clarinet with Julian Farrell and Joy Farel at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is also a MBA graduate from the Neapolis University Paphos, Cyprus and a member of Mensa Cyprus. His busy profile gained him an international recognition and he became a Fratelli Patricola Clarinet Artist, a Silverstein Ligature Artist and a Marca Reeds Artist. He records for Hook Records. He was recently appointed as the Cyprus Chair of the International Clarinet Association. Future engagements include recitals in Cyprus, London, Canary Islands and USA.

Annita Skoutella is a 2015 graduate from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree on the French Horn. She continued her postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and graduated with a Master of Music in Performance title in 2016. In addition, she holds an ABRSM Teaching Diploma in French horn and an ABRSM Grade 8 diploma in French Horn, Piano and in Music Theory. As a student, from 2006 to 2011, she was an active member of the Cyprus Youth Orchestra. She has performed with many UK orchestras over the past 8 years, such as the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the RWCMD, RNCM Orchestras and National Youth Orchestra of Wales. She also receives regular invitations from different orchestras, including the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, in which she participates as an extra musician. She is also a member of Quintus Ensemble which is a Wind Quintet. She is currently a French horn teacher at the Music Schools in Nicosia, Paphos and Frenaros. She also teaches French horn at the English School in Nicosia. Lastly, she teaches music and French horn at the Junior Brass Ensemble workshop of the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Giovanni Galetti (Bassoon): Born in Milan in 1971, began his musical studies in the 1981, singing as a soloist (boy soprano) at the Teatro alla Scala for seven years performing in Operas and choral works, under Maestri such as Lorin Mazel, Nicholas Harnoncourt. After graduating in 1993 at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan he performed with various orchestras in Italy, Orchestra dei “Pomeriggi Musicali” in Milano the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, and also Bellini Theater in Catania, under the direction of Hans Graf, and with the Teatro alla Scala of Milan working under the direction of Maestri Giuseppe Sinopoli and Semyon Betchkof. From 1997 till 2000, after winning the audition, he has been playing as first bassoon in the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra in Japan, where he performed more than twenty times on major television networks such as KBS, and NHK and recorded on major labels such as Sony and Philips. Presently he is member of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra as principal bassoon.

Wolfgang Schröder (violin): Born into a South German family, Wolfgang Schröders earliest studies began with his parents. At a young age Ana Chumachenko became his teacher and played a decisive role in his development as a violinist. At the early age of 17, he 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 together with Yehudi Menuhin and Alberto Lysy, both as soloist and chamber musician in numerous European countries (Barbican Center, London), South America (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires), and many other. 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, Kammerorchester Basel, Rubinstein Phil harmony Lodz, Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Nuremberg Symphony, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Israel Soloists Ensemble, Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Thai Philharmonic Orchestra etc. He was also the artistic director of the European Community Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) from 1993-1995 and has performed a number of highly acclaimed concert tours worldwide. He has worked with conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreyko, Daniel Raiskin, to name just a few. As an active chamber musician, in 1992 he founded the Belcanto String Trio and from 1996 to 2005 has regularly performed as 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. As soloist and chamber player Wolfgang Schröder performs in musical centers such as the “Philharmonie” in Berlin, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Vienna “Konzerthaus”, at the “Great Performers Series“ at Lincoln Center New York, at the “Frick Collection” Museum New York at the “Masters Series“ in London`s Wigmore Hall, at the London Barbican Hall, the Megaron Musikis of Athens and at “Teatro Colon” in Buenos Aires.

Wolfgang Schröder’s chamber music partners include artists like among others Wenzel Fuchs, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Benjamin Schmid, Alex Karr, Cyprien Katsaris, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen, Daniel Raiskin, Ramon Jaffe, Andreas Frölich, Elisaveta Blumina, Levon Chilingirian Zvi Carmeli, Alex Hülshoff and Gustav Rivinius and Sennu Laine. He also has been regularly 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 Hopfgarten Festival (Austria), the Moritzburg Festival in Germany, the West Cork Festival in Ireland, the Umea and Bostad Festivals (Sweden), the International Music Festival Middelburg (Holland) , the Euriade Festival in Aachen, Germany, the International Festival of Echternach (Luxemburg) and the Ojika Festival, Japan. 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 made recordings for MDG, Divox, Ars Production, Thorofon, Symicon and CPO labels. A CD with the complete Sonatas for Violin by Eugene Ysaye appeared on Hook Records in 2017. Since 2005 he is 1st Concertmaster of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.

Nikos Pittas holds two Diplonas from Ethnikon Odeon of Cyprus, an LRSM Certificate, BM, MM, and GPD degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He has received various scholarships and Awards. He has won several competitions and has performed Recitals in Cyprus, Greece, USA, Spain, Norway, Germany, Austria, France, etc. He appeared as a member and a soloist with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic, Cyprus State Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Orquesta Simfonica de Castilla y Leon, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Pharos Soloists and Ledra Music Soloists. He is currently a principal member of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and a violin professor at the Cyprus Youth Orchestra.

Krzysztof Wróbel was born in 1970 in Poland.He started learning the violin at the age of 6. He graduated from the Music Adacdemy of Katowice in Viola Performance.He was principal of the Silesia Chamber Orchestra and member of the Silesian Chamber Quartet. He has co operated with Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, The Menuhin Festival Orchestra, National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and has performed throughout Europe, Poland and Brazil. He joined the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and has been an actively involved in chamber music and solo work since.

Jakub Otčenášek (cello): he was born into a family of no musical tradition. Out of curiosity at the age of 14 he started to play piano and one year later, at 15, he took first classes of playing the cello. At the age of 16 he became a member of "Europera Jugendorchester" where he was allowed to work with the conductor Miloš Krejčí. Only one year later he started his studies at the Prague Conservatory in the class of Renata Strašrybková. At that time, he won several prizes at national competitions and took part at international competitions as well. In years 2010-2012 he was principal cellist of Prague Conservatory Orchestra (2011 this orchestra played the opening concert of international music festival ‘’Prague Spring’ with Jiří Bělohlávek as a conductor). 2012 he graduated with Schumann Cello Concerto accompanied by the abovementioned orchestra. Since the academic year 2012/13 he is studying at the ‘Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität’ with Prof. Lilia Schulz-Bayrova. Within the last accomplishments he is allowed to count a special price of ‘Enami-Stiftung’ at the chamber music competition ‘Fidelio-Wettbewerb 2014’ in Wien. Since November 2016 he is the principal cellist of Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. Jakub Otčenášek took part at masterclasses with well-known artists such as Michaela Fukačová, Michal Kaňka, Bruno Weinmeister and Natalia Gutman. He has given concerts through Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria) and has made several recordings for the Czech Radio (works for cello and piano by Czech composer Jarmila Mazourová with her playing the piano part) and Czech National Television (works for cello and piano by Antonín Dvořák).

Nikos Ioannou took his first musical steps at the age of 7 on classical guitar where he later obtained a degree. At the age of 15 he started contrabass lessons. He was a member of the Cyprus State Youth Orchestra for 4 years. He studied double bass at the Athens Conservatory and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he graduated. Holds the Diploma of Teaching and Soloist of the Athens Conservatory with the grade Excellent and the LGSMD title of Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the grade Excellent. He was a member of the Agreement. Rethymnon Orchestra of Crete, of Symf. Piraeus Orchestra and collaborated several times with the Symphony. ERT Orchestra and the Orchestra of Colors. Since 1999 he holds the position of the Leader in the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He also collaborates with the ensemble "Cyprus Chamber Orchestra" and is a member of the ensemble "Tiempos Viechos".  From 1999 until today he teaches double bass in the music workshop of Symf. Cyprus Youth Orchestra. In the past he taught at the Music High School of Nicosia from the day of its foundation and for 10 years, from 2017 to 2019 he taught at the European University, as well as for a series of 5 years (2005-2010) he taught at the University of Nicosia.