International Contemporary Music Festival

Photography by Socrates Socratous
Click on any image to zoom in

Festival Events:

First 3 concerts — Programming 2010:

• The first three concerts will take place at The Shoe Factory and will present eight distinguished soloists: the internationally-acclaimed Kreutzer String Quartet, Jan Philip Schulze (piano), Roger Heaton (clarinet), Michael Thompson (horn), as well as the exceptionally talented flutist Virginie Bove who resides in Cyprus. The programme will include a range of works – the majority of which will be Cyprus premieres – by over 15 contemporary composers, including Ligeti, Kurtág, Reich, Xenakis and Berio. The most exciting aspect of the three concerts will be the World-Premiere of The Pharos Quartets – four newly commissioned works by four Cypriot composers: Andreas Moustoukis, Vassos Nikolaou, Yiannis Kyriakides and, the Festival’s artistic director, Evis Sammoutis.
• Wednesday, 1 September 2010 — The Shoe Factory, at 8:30pm
  
  • Mauricio Kagel (1931 – 2008)
    MM 51 for piano and metronome (1983)
  • Yiannis Kyriakides (b. 1969)  Unvoice for clarinet, piano, violin and computer
    Pharos Commission: World-premiere
  • Toru Takemitsu (1930 – 1996)
    Distance de Fee for violin and piano (1951)
  • György Kurtág (b. 1926)
    Schleedoyer 1 & 2 (1991)
    —— Intermission
  • Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)
    Three pieces for string quartet (1914)
  • Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934)
    Clarinet Quintet (1980)
  • Iannis Xenakis (1922 – 2001)
    Tetras (1983) 
• Thursday, 2 September 2010 — The Shoe Factory, at 8:30pm
  
  • Charles Ives (1874 – 1954)
    Scherzo: Holding your own for string quartet (1908)
  • Andreas Moustoukis (b. 1971)  Memento mori for Piano Quartet and CD (world-premiere)
    Pharos Commission: World-premiere
  • Toru Takemitsu (1930 – 1996)
    Voice for solo flute (1971)
  • Charles Ives (1874 – 1954)
    Piano Trio (1896)
    —— Intermission
  • Giacinto Scelsi (1905 - 1988)
    Arc en Ciel for two violins (1973)
  • Evis Sammoutis (b. 1979)
    Μετήορον for clarinet, piano, violin and cello
    Pharos Commission: World-premiere
  • György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
    Horn Trio (1982)
• Friday, 3 September 2010 — The Shoe Factory, at 8:30pm
  
  • Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)
    Appel Interstellaire for solo horn (1972)
  • Jeremy Dale Roberts (b. 1934)
    Croquis for string quartet (1980)
  • Denis Smalley (b. 1946)
    Clarinet Threads with CD (1985)
  • Jim Aitchison
    Elegy (for Terry Frost)
    —— Intermission
  • Vassos Nicolaou (b. 1971)
    New work for String Quartet
    Pharos Commission: World-premiere
  • Luciano Berio (1925 - 2003)
    Sequenza VI for solo viola (1968)
  • György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
    String Quartet No. 2 (1968)

Last concert — programming 2010:

• The last concert will combine acoustic ecology and contemporary dance and music, and will take place at the breathtaking outdoors concert venue of the Pharos Arts Foundation, The Olive Grove in Delikipos.
  The event will comprise two parts of approx. an hour each:
  a) The first part will feature six dancers of the Lee K. Dance Group, who they will open the programme with one of the most iconic electronic music works, Luc Ferrari’s Presque Rien No. 1 ou le lever du jour au bord de la mer, which uses sounds from daily life. The sounds of crickets, cars, people, water and wind, to name but a few, are manipulated and mixed electronically but never lose their character and are structured in such a way as to make them sound as natural as possible. The mixing of this work will allow for these sounds to blend with the sounds from Delikipos, the real crickets will blend with the “electronic crickets,” creating a very intimate atmosphere. The work will not be just listened to; there will be six site-specific dance installations by four dancers in different spaces with distinct themes such as water, the earth, man-made structures that already exist within the space. The audience will walk around these six spaces, experiencing a visual polyrhythm as the six solo performances will be performed using six different time divisions/tempi. The programme will also include Ligeti’s monumental Poeme Symphonique for 100 metronomes! A hundred metronomes ticking together at different speeds gradually stop naturally one after the other after they ran their course, resulting in increasingly coherent polyrhythmic structures out of the original cloud of noise. The last remaining metronome ticking marks the beginning of an astonishing solo dance work by Korean choreographer Lee Kyungeun, which entails no formal music.
  b) The second part will comprise a concert by one of the most distinguished percussion groups in the world, the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble from Sweden. This is an alternative programme consisting of some of the most famous works written for a combination of percussions. It will surely appeal to people of all ages and aesthetics and will bring a monumental finale to the Second Pharos International Contemporary Music Festival.
• Saturday, 4 September 2010 — The Olive Grove, Delikipos, at 7:30pm
  
  • Dance Installations by Lee K. Dance Company
    Luc Ferrari (1929 - 2005)
    Presque Rien No. 1 ou le lever du jour au bord de la mer (1970)
  • György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
    Poeme Symphonique for 100 metronomes (1962)
  • György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
    “Come un meccanismo di precisione” - 3rd Movement from String Quartet No. 2 (1968)
    —— Intermission
  • Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
    György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
    Car Horn Prelude from the opera Le Grand Macabre (1977)
  • Iannis Xenakis (1922 – 2001)
    Okho (1989)
  • Sven-David Sandstrom (b. 1942)
    Cool (1987)
  • Steve Reich (b. 1936)
    Pieces of Wood (1973)
  • John Eriksson (b. 1974)
    A forest of hands (2005)
  • John Cage (1912 - 1992)
    Branches (1976)
  • Steve Reich (b. 1936)
    Drumming – Part 1 (1971)

About the Artists 2010:

• The Kreutzer String Quartet
  Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin), Mihailo Trandafilovski (violin), Morgan Goff (viola), Neil Heyde (cello)
  
  • The Kreutzer Quartet has forged an enviable reputation as one of the Europe’s most dynamic and innovative string quartets. They are the dedicatees of numerous works, and over many years, forged creative partnerships with composers including Sir Michael Tippett, David Matthews, Michael Finnissy, Judith Weir, and Haflidi Hallgrimsson. They have a particularly strong relationship to a cross-section of leading American composers, having collaborated intensively with the great George Rochberg in the last few years of his life, as long as working closely with figures as Elliott Schwartz, and the prolific symphonist Gloria Coates. As recording artists they have won critical acclaim for their discs on the Naxos, Metier, and Chandos labels. They are Artists in Association at Quartet at York University, and at Wiltons Music Hall. Their work in collaboration with art galleries has garnered much attention, and large audiences.
• Michael Thompson / horn
  
  • Internationally acknowledged as one of the world’s leading horn players, Michael Thompson is also known as a fine orchestral trainer. After studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he was appointed principal horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the age of eighteen. He was subsequently offered the principal horn positions of both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. He has directed a number of orchestras, including the London Sinfonietta, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Britten Pears Orchestra and Ulster Youth Orchestra. In addition to his classical work, Michael Thompson is very active as a studio musician, playing on sound-tracks such as The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Bond films. His work for Sir Paul McCartney resulted in the composition of Stately Horn, which the Michael Thompson Horn Quartet premiered in the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall.
• Jan Philip Schulze / piano
  
  • German pianist Jan Philip Schulze is equally successful in his career as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist of singers. He studied at the Musikhochschule Munich and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Awards at international competitions in Italy, Spain, and South Africa marked the beginning of his career, which led him in all European countries as well as to Japan. Schulze has collaborated with renowned singers, including Violeta Urmana, with whom he performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and at the Festivals of Munich, Salzburg and Edinburgh. As a chamber musician and soloist, Jan Philip Schulze is especially attracted by contemporary music. He is the pianist of the Ensemble TriLog Munich and gave many world premieres. Upon the recommendation of Hans Werner Henze, Jan Philip Schulze performed the entire piano oeuvre of the composer and presented it in concerts in Madrid, Genova, Rome, at the Teatro alla Scala, at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and in Hamburg.
• Roger Heaton / clarinet
  
  • Clarinettist and conductor Roger Heaton, studied at the Royal Academy of Music, King’s College London and Huddersfield University. He has collaborated closely with some of the world’s leading composers including Henze, Feldman and Ferneyhough and regularly performs with such groups as the Fidelio and Archduke Trios, Kreutzer and Smith String Quartets. Heaton was a member of the London Sinfonietta and Ensemble Modern, and has been a member of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble since the early 1980s. He was Music Director and Conductor of Rambert Dance Company during the 1990s, Clarinet Professor at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (1982-94). He is currently Professor of Music at Bath Spa University.
• Lee K. Dance Company
  
  • The contemporary dance company Lee K. Dance (LKD) was founded in 2002 by choreographer Lee Kyung-eun. The group is renowned for its ultimate artistic expression, explosive energy, warm spirit and interesting interpretations. Through tough training and challenging experiments, LKD’s members have been praised by audiences and critics alike. The artistic director of LKD, choreographer and dancer Lee Kyung-eun has appeared in a number of diverse international dance festivals, including: SIDance Seoul International Dance Festival, Modafe International Modern Dance Festival, US Raw Material (2000), Dance Biennalle Tokyo, Composition Workshop (French Royaumont Foundation, 2003), International Solo TanzTheater Festival (Germany, 2004), Grand Atelier (France), Kaay Fecc (Senegal, 2005), and International Dumbo Dance Festival (New York, 2006). Lee Kyung-eun has received numerous prizes, amongst others, at the 8th International Solo TanzTheatre Festival in Stuttgart (2004) and the Dance Vision ‘Best Dance Artist Prize’ of Dance Promotion of Korea (2007).
• Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
  Johan Silvmark, Roger Bergström, Ulrik Nilsson, Pontus Langendorf
  
  • Kroumata is one of the world’s leading percussion ensembles. The unequalled dynamism and energy of their performances have dazzled audiences all over the world. The unique experience of a Kroumata concert appeals to audiences of all different ages and cultural backgrounds. Kroumata possess a strong commitment to contemporary percussion music and have commissioned numerous works from Swedish and international composers. The group’s extensive repertoire includes works by composers as diverse as Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, Toru Takemitsu and Sven David Sandström. Over 220 works have received their world-premieres by Kroumata. The Kroumata Ensemble has toured some 40 countries and performed recitals to critical acclaim all over the world. The past few years alone included a sold-out performance at the Lincoln Center, New York, performances at the Berliner Philharmonie and Wiener Konzerthaus as well as tours to Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Portugal, Italy, Finland and Germany.

Practical Info:

Venues 2010:

• The Shoe Factory, Nicosia
  
  • The Shoe Factory is situated in the old part of Nicosia, near the buffer zone. Through its International Contemporary Music Festival, the Pharos Arts Foundation is helping to revitalize this beautiful and historic section of the capital city by attracting a wide and diversified younger audience. All concerts are characterized by a unique feeling of intimacy; contemporary music is performed in an exceptionally inspiring setting: a modern venue decorated with contemporary art by mainly local artists; a venue situated in the “run down” part of Nicosia that offers the audience the unique opportunity to sit within an amazing proximity to world famous artists and experience performances in a venue, quite frankly, like no other.
• The Olive Grove, Delikipos
  
  • The Olive Grove is a world-class, open-air concert venue, which aims to deliver relaxed and informal events so that intimacy is developed between the artists and the audience. The venue is surrounded by the idyllic forest of Delikipos and is adorned with wooden decks, lakes and rills and a uniquely atmospheric lighting. The audience can relax on the chairs, blankets and pillows with a glass of wine. Our vision is to make contemporary art less intimidating for our audience, as we do not want to lure an audience with popular music but to find innovative ways of approaching these events to make them more fun and appealing without compromising quality and vision.

Do you have an update or more information about this festival? Email us at updates@kadmusarts.com
Start or join a conversation about this festival in the Forum.