Violin and piano recital: Musical Escapes

The talented violinist Konstantina Maimari and the pianist Plotinos Micromatis invite you on a special recital on Friday 27 of January 2023 at 20:00. The program will consist of works by E.Grieg, H.V.Lobos, G.Gershwin and by the Cypriot young composer A.Antoniades.

PROGRAMME

Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907): Violin Sonata no.2, in G Major, Op.13

1.Lento doloroso – Poco Allegro – Allegro Vivace – Presto

2. Allegretto tranquillo

3. Allegro Animato

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 - 1959): Sonata Fantasia no.1, "Deséspérance"

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937): Porgy & Bess

“It Ain’t Necessarily So”

“Bess, you is My Woman”

Aris Antoniades (born 1991): Palpable Illusion (2013)

1. Mist

2. Tumult

3. Baidouska

Entrance: €12 | for further information or reservations please call 70002420.

A few words about the musicians:

Warm, vibrant and full of energetic nuance are some of the attributes of violinist Konstantina Maimari’s playing. Konstantina Maimari is passionate not only performing standard repertoire but also discovering lesser known repertoire particularly of the late 19th- early 20th century and new music.

Konstantina’s concert engagements have taken her to Cyprus, Greece, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. She has appeared in prestigious halls including Buckingham Palace in London and Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. She has participated in concerts series and music festivals such as Festival d’Aix en Provence (France), Rosin Chamber Music Festival (UK), Kypria International Festival (Cyprus), Mondays at One (UK) and Fridays at One Concert Series (UK). As a soloist, Konstantina performed with orchestras including Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.

Konstantina is a recent graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she studied her Master’s degree with Maya Iwabuchi and her Bachelor’s degree with Katie Hull. She has participated in orchestral projects with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, TrakArt Pops Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, and the Brodsky Quartet. She has worked with conductors such as Pablo Heras- Casado, Jessica Cottis, Christian Kluxen and Alpesh Chauhan. She took part in masterclasses with artists including Joseph Swensen, Lutsia Impragimova, Leland Chen, Simon James and Simos Papanas.

She received scholarships and grants from the Nikolas Economou Foundation, Hope Scott Trust, as well as from the Musical Workshop of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. Born in Cyprus, Konstantina started learning the piano with her mother and the violin with her uncle. Significant influences on her musical development were Maria Koukou, Pavlos Koukos, Wolfgang Schroeder and Edward Cohen.

Konstantina enjoys teaching. She offers tuition privately at her violin studio and online. She plays on a fine copy of G.B.Guadagnini Turin, Italy, 1774, made by S.Stepan.

In her free time she loves being in the nature and visiting museums, which are sources of her inspiration.

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www.konstantinamaimari.com

Born in Cyprus, Plotinos Micromatis has been performing since the age of eight as well as recording for Cyprus national radio and television. His first professional engagement was a recital with works by Telemann, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann, which he gave when he was fifteen years old. In 1987 he won the Ρrix Ravel Competition, held in Nicosia, and in 1988, following his win at the national competition, he represented Cyprus at the 4th Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians which was held at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

After he completed his studies with Pitsa Spyridaki in Cyprus, he moved to London in order to study with Alasdair Graham at the Royal College of Music and later with Simon Young and Κaoru Bingham at the University of London (Trinity College of Music). He holds performance diplomas of the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as a Master of Music degree from the University of London (Trinity College of Music).

Plotinos has a wide repertoire ranging from the pre-baroque to the modern era, and has given premières of works by composers such as Savvas Savva and Filimon Lamprou and regularly includes their compositions in his programmes. Composer and conductor George Skipworth dedicated his Piano Sonata to Plotinos.

Presently based in Nicosia, Cyprus, Plotinos is equally “at home” performing solo recitals, chamber music with singers and instrumentalists and as soloist with orchestra. He has collaborated with the Greek National Opera, the Thessaloniki Opera and the Greek National Theatre. Among his skills is training singers for operatic roles and accompanying singers and instrumentalists in concerts, auditions and examinations.

He has appeared as soloist with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Lewis & Clarke University Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra among others; and under conductors such as Sergiu Comissiona, José Ferreira Lobo, George Skipworth, Stephen Futrell, Panayiotis Panayi, Themis Christodoulou and Ara Vorsganian.

Apart from Greece and Cyprus, Plotinos has given concerts in the UK, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.

www.plotinos.com

Praised for the “spiritual heights, the drama, the tension” of his music “immersing the listener into a world of sound” (The National Herald, NYC), composer Aris Antoniades creates works for everything from Symphony Orchestras to Jazz Big Bands. He has written/arranged for eight-times Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria, the National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Greece (ERT), twenty-eight-time gold and platinum album vocalist (IFPI Greece) Alkistis Protopsalti, as well as Michalis Hatzigiannis, George Perris, and X-Factor (Greece) judges George Theofanous and Mariza Rizou.

His latest symphonic work, Chiaroscuro, was recorded and broadcast by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, and his Afro-Cuban Jazz arrangement of Lalo Schifrin’s famous Mission Impossible Theme was performed at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York (Jazz at the Lincoln Center) in the presence of the late conga master Cándido Camero. More recently, his Toccata & Fugue for organ was performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC, while his Nostos for saxophone and piano, co-commissioned by the University of Sydney and the Australian ensemble HD Duo, was featured in the group's new album Music of the Commonwealth, published by Da Vinci Classics in November 2021.

As of January 2021, he is the artistic director and principal conductor of the TrakArt Pops Orchestra in his homeland, Cyprus.

A recipient of the Fulbright award, Aris completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music in NYC, where he studied with Mark Stambaugh, receiving the Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence upon graduation. He is honored to have been the recipient of the Manhattan School of Music International Advisory Board and the A. G. Leventis Foundation scholarship awards. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Education at the University of St. Louis, Missouri.

www.arisantoniades.com