This winter Paphos will be turned into a winter wonderland of music when four musical performances get us ready for the Christmas period ahead.
Under the name the Winter Music Festival 2017, Technopolis 20 Cultural Centre – where the first three concerts will take place – and the Ayia Kyriaki church will present a programme prepared by the Paphos Kidney Association and the Paphos Music Lovers.
The musical festivities will begin on Tuesday with a performance by the Tete a Tete and the Sine Nomine choirs. The programme will include works by John Bennet, David Woodgaes and Thomas Vautor.
Tete a Tete is a group of six singers from the UK who have experience of being choir members in Cyprus and in the UK. Nomine was established in 2015 by a group of experienced singers wanting to form a small a capella choir. Anthony Stidolph, who will be directing the performance on Tuesday, became their Musical Director in September 2016.
The next wintery performance will be on Thursday when five pianists – Yiannis Georgiou, Nina Ioannidou, Galina Dimova, Natalia Lezedova and Ivelina Rouseva – will take to the stage. The five pianists will perform works by Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and more. All the pianists will perform solos, while Ioannidou and Lezedova and Dimova and Rouseva will perform duos.
Ioannidou graduated from the Musical University of Stavroupoli in Russia and from the Musical Faculty of the University of Greece. For the last eight years she has been teaching in music schools in Paphos and Limassol.
Dimova studied at The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Bulgaria. The pianist plays extensively both as a soloist and as an accompanist and has an unusually wide repertoire, ranging from Baroque all the way up to contemporary music.
Lezedova is a graduate of the Musical Faculty of the State Pedagogical University of Russia. She is the winner of the Severnaya Venetsia competition 2012 and Laureate of the first prize as a Concertmaster in the Musical Competition Performing Arts Saint-Petersburg 2013.
Georgiou studied at Trinity College of Music in London and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow from which he graduated with the Aspirant Diploma – he is the only Cypriot pianist to have received this award.
Rouseva studied at the National Music Academy Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia. Since 1999 she has been living in Paphos, where she teaches piano and also takes part in various cultural events and concerts for solo piano and chamber music.
The last performance at Technopolis 20 Cultural Centre will be on Saturday by George Georgiou on clarinet, Virginie Bove on the flute and Gergana Georgieva on the piano. The three musicians will perform works by Adolf Schreiner, Gabriel Faure, Franz Doppler and others.
Georgiou has appeared in many solo concerts and recitals in Europe, the Middle East and the USA. He is the artistic director of music at the Museum concert series and the general director of the non-for-profit Culture Tones organisation.
Bove studied the flute at the Conservatoire of Paris and of Saint-Maur. In 1999 she had her debut as a soloist by performing the European premiere of Lipkin’s Flute Concerto.
Georgieva studied at the Pancho Vladigerov music school in Burgas. Since 2008 – when she moved to Cyprus – she has participated in concerts and presentations on the island, including performances with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.
The last performance of the festival moves the musical fun to the Ayia Kyriaki church where Paul Timmins will give an organ recital. The programme will include works by Bach, Elgar, Messiaen and Dupre.
All concerts will be performed in aid of the Paphos Kidney Association with all proceeds going to the charity.
Winter Music Festival
Series of three music concerts in aid of the Paphos Kidney Association. November 21, 23, and 25. Technopolis 20 Cultural Centre, Paphos. 8pm. €12 per concert or €30 for all three concerts. Tel: 70-002420
