Chamber music fans have allbeen waiting for the Apollon International Chamber Music Festival to enter our lives this year, and now the wait is over. This is the third year the festival has been staged and this year it is taking on a whole new look as its name change – to Apollon International Arts Festival – brings with it some jazz and classic-rock music.
This year, the festival begins with three evenings of chamber music at the Annabelle Hotel in Paphos from Wednesday. The international musicians Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Katharine Gowers (violin), Krzystof Chorzelski (viola), Guy Johnston (cello) and Charles Owen (piano) will present a programme of music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Faure, Franck, Dohnanyi and Dvorak.
Waley-Cohen, from London, has played in concerts with the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and BBC orchestras, among others, and has been associate artist with the Orchestra of the Swan and works with conductors including Andrew Litton and Tamas Vasary. Her love of chamber music led her to start the Honeymead Festival, now in its ninth year, and she is also artistic director of the Sunday Series at London’s Tricycle Theatre.
Gowers has performed extensively throughout Britain and abroad in recitals and as a chamber musician. Her concerto appearances include performances with the Royal Philharmonic and with the BBC Big Band. She has appeared at a number of festivals, including the Spoleto and Oxford festival, and she has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Violist Chorzelski performs as a soloist and also as a member of the Belcea Quartet. The Polish violist, conductor and teacher, is a frequent guest at international festivals, such as the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the Spannungen in Germany.
British cellist Johnston won the BBC Young Musicians of the Year award in 2000. Since then he has enjoyed a successful international career as a soloist and chamber musician and currently serves as a Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
The last of the chamber music musicians of the concert is pianist Owen, who is recognised as one of the finest British pianists of his generation. He has an extensive series of performances and recordings to his name.
On Saturday the feel of the festival will enter the realm of classical rock and jazz as the PapaGeorgio String Quartet and vocalist Sarah Fenwick will take to the Annabelle hotel stage.
The performance will be repeated for a Nicosia audience on Sunday at the Melina Mercouri Hall.
The PapaGeorgio String Quartet, who are Constantin Papageorgio, Iraklis Mitellas, Nick Papageorgio and Gurhan Nuray, are very well-known for performing rock and pop songs as you have never heard them before, as behind the violins and cello is a great classical music influence.
The quartet has an album, entitled A Tribute to the Classic Rock to their name. This first album includes covers of The Scorpions, The Eagles, Queen, Europe, Alice Cooper, Metallica and more. These covers present the songs with their original structure and harmony, while also providing the rich colours of a string quartet, according to the members.
Joining the quartet will be singer Sarah Fenwick – or Lady Jazz as she is known. Fenwick studied classical vocal technique and used this very strong foundation to develop her three-octave range in the Jazz style.
Since starting her professional music career in 1991, she has performed in Cyprus, Israel, Kuwait, Italy and elsewhere. She has recorded and produced four CDs.
Speaking about the line-up, festival director Saskia Constantinou explains “The third Apollon International Arts Festival will give audiences the opportunity to feel they are sharing an evening of music together – where everyone is comfortable and relaxed. The aim is to make attending a classical music concert attractive to new audiences while simultaneously presenting chamber music of the highest quality to the discerning listener. The inclusion of an evening of classic rock is an effort to appeal to a greater and wider audience.”
All performances start at 8pm and tickets can be purchased from TicketHour and ACS Courier or by telephone reservation on 99-722031.
Third Apollon International Arts Festival 2016
Chamber music performances. October 26-29. Annabelle Hotel, Paphos. 8pm. €50 for the four Annabelle Hotel performances, €15/10 for single performance. Tel: 99-722031
