10 th INTERNATIONAL PHAROS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL 5 14 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia

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1 10 th INTERNATIONAL PHAROS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL 5 14 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia INFORMATION: Information & Box Office: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)

2 10 th INTERNATIONAL PHAROS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL: The International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary!!! Pharos Contemporary is the first festival of new music that was inaugurated in Cyprus, in 2009, and it has premiered numerous well-established masterpieces of the 20th century as well as works by the younger generation of leading composers from all over the world, ever since. The Festival is rooted in the Pharos Arts Foundation s deep commitment to music creativity and innovation. Before even the inauguration of the Festival, Pharos was the first exponent of contemporary music in Cyprus for years, it was identifying important and hugely talented young composers from Cyprus and abroad before commissioning them to write new works, which were subsequently premiered in Nicosia by internationally renowned ensembles. Nowadays, the Festival is established as one of the most innovative annual events in Europe, and some of these composers will be featured in this year s edition, rejoicing Pharos great contribution to music-making. Organised between 5 and 14 October 2018 at The Shoe Factory in Nicosia, the 10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival will celebrate its anniversary by bringing together, in Cyprus, some of the most iconic names on the international contemporary music scene: Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich. The gathering of these music legends under one roof, in the span of just a few days, is a true historical milestone for the Cyprus culture. Under the artistic direction of prominent Cypriot composer Evis Sammoutis, the Festival will encompass an array of concerts, educational activities and interactive workshops. Contemporary music creation reflects the profundity of the modern-day man and human spirit and it is directly linked with many forms of visual and creative arts, and sciences. By giving voice to it, the 10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival is certain to be a glorious, and quite rare, experience. SCHEDULE: Friday 5 Oct 8:30pm Concert: ENSEMBLE MODERN Sunday 7 Oct 8:30pm In Aria An improvisation project for theremin and electronics with percussionist CLAUDIO BETTINELLI Wednesday 10 Oct 6:00pm 8:30pm Draw your own music with UPISketch An Interactive Music Workshop for adults and children Thursday 11 Oct 7:30pm Composers living in the Diaspora A frank and open discussion with five of the Festival s featured composers who had to abandon their motherlands in order to pursue an international career in a foreign country, in the diaspora Friday 12 Oct 8:30pm Concert: KLANGFORUM WIEN Sunday 14 Oct 8:30pm Concert: Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich *** All events will take place at The Shoe Factory, Nicosia. Please contact the Pharos Arts Foundation about the schedule of the Educational Activities, which will take place during the mornings.

3 Friday 5 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 8:30pm Concert: ENSEMBLE MODERN It s already been twelve years since the Pharos Arts Foundation invited for the first time in Cyprus one of the most iconic ensembles of our time: Ensemble Modern. As part of that concert, in 2006, the Foundation also commissioned a Cypriot composer in his mid-20s, who was increasingly becoming acknowledged abroad but was barely known in Cyprus. His resulting masterpiece, entitled Echopraxia, was premiered in Cyprus in May 2016 and went on to win the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and the prestigious Irino Prize in Japan the following year. The name of that composer was Evis Sammoutis, who has gained a vast international reputation ever since and is now the Festival s artistic director. The 10 th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival is thrilled to welcome the return visit of the remarkable Ensemble Modern, who will team up again with Evis Sammoutis in presenting one of his works, as well as with Vassos Nicolaou another internationally celebrated Cypriot composer who was repeatedly featured by Pharos in his early days. The programme will also include works by Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Jörg Widmann, and a world premiere by the extremely promising young Cypriot composer Andreas Tsiartas. The concert, which will take place on Friday 5 October at The Shoe Factory, 8:30pm, would not have been made possible without the generous support of the Goethe Institut Zypern. ENSEMBLE MODERN Since its founding in 1980, Ensemble Modern has established itself among the leading new music ensembles in the world. The Ensemble s unique and distinctive programming includes musical theatre works, dance and video projects, chamber music, ensemble and orchestral concerts. Tours and guest appearances have taken the Ensemble Modern to the most renowned festivals and distinguished performance venues, such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, Wien Modern, Festival d'automne à Paris, Holland Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, Berliner Festspiele, Ruhrtriennale and Lucerne Festival, as well as to the Wigmore Hall, Cité de la Musique, Tokyo Wondersite, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Since 1985, Ensemble Modern has been having its own series at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and since 2011, it has been collaborating with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in presenting the festival cresc... Biennial for Modern Music Frankfurt Rhine-Main. Ensemble Modern strives to achieve the highest possible degree of authenticity by working closely with contemporary composers, producing an average of 70 new works every year, 20 of which are world premieres. Its work is characterised by extraordinary and often long-term cooperative ventures with renowned artists, such as Peter Eötvös, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Benedict Mason, John Adams, George Benjamin, Frank Zappa. In addition to its multi-faceted concert activities, Ensemble Modern presents the results of its work through regular radio and CD recordings. Almost 30 of the more than 150 CD productions have been released by the ensemble s own label, Ensemble Modern Media. In 2003, Ensemble Modern was declared a Leuchtturm or beacon of contemporary culture in Germany by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. That same year, Ensemble Modern began bundling its existing education and further education projects under one roof, founding the now renowned International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) with the goal of passing on the musical heritage of modernism. Information & Box Office: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm) Tickets: 15 / 10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation

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5 Sunday 7 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 8:30pm In Aria An improvisation project for theremin and electronics with percussionist CLAUDIO BETTINELLI In Aria is a 45-minute exploration of sound, gesture and meaning that, with the help of new technologies, attempts to expand the instrumental, musical and dramatic boundaries of the percussionist. Revolving around music that has already been composed specifically for the event by Evis Sammoutis and Vincent Carinola, percussionist Claudio Bettinelli will strive to communicate with the surrounding environment by combining improvised and composed material, creating situations where random objects and space dictate their own rules and act as leading actors in order to accomplish their own acoustic and expressive functions. The performance will take place on Sunday 7 October 2018, at The Shoe Factory, 8:30pm, as part of the 10 th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival. CLAUDIO BETTINELLI theremin A graduate of the Jonathan Faralli Course of Percussion Instruments in Livorno and of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon, Claudio Bettinelli is considered amongst the most exciting and sought-after percussionists in the European contemporary scene. At the International Music Competition of Geneva, Bettinelli was awarded the Special Award for Instrument Originality and earned the Jury s special mention for Programme Originality for his artistic research. He subsequently collaborated for three consecutive years with UBS International Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Verbier (Switzerland) and the Italian Youth Orchestra. Currently, Claudio Bettinelli is the solo percussionist of the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, under the direction of Daniel Kawka, the percussionist of the ensemble C-Barré, under the direction of Sebastien Boin, and he collaborates with the Ensemble Musicatreize, under the direction of Roland Hayrabedian. He has appeared in prestigious international festivals where he has premiered dozens of works by contemporary composers, and he frequently performs for Radio France, Festival d'aix-en-provence, Présence, 38e Rugissants, amongst others, collaborating as a soloist with a number of composers, including Vincent Raphaël Carinola and Zad Moultaka, with whom he has created several shows as part of the collective Mezwej. Bettinelli s musical curiosity allows him to perform activities in classical, contemporary, musical theatre, improvisation and electronic music. He created the music for Fragile on the Edge and Cath 22, choreographed by Jasna Vinovrski, as well as Energy and Kismet choreographed by Ziya Azazi. His pedagogical research has led him to collaborations with various academic, social and musical institutions, where he focuses on the interaction between music and information technology, gestures and musical improvisation. Claudio Bettinelli has recorded several albums including a monograph by Boulez that received the Golden Tuning Fork Critics Award. Information & Box Office: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm) Tickets: 10

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7 Wednesday 10 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 6:00pm 8:30pm Draw your own music with UPISketch An Interactive Music Workshop for adults and children Come and explore music-making in a completely different and innovative manner with UPISketch an intuitive application for tablets and cell phones. Developed by Rodolphe Bourotte of the Centre Iannis Xenakis, UPISketch enables any user to compose their own music using drawing either through using preexisting sounds, or even by recording their own sounds. What makes UPISketch so unique is that the user is not required to have any previous musical training or knowledge in order to use it! It is an exceptionally enjoyable and creative experience for both children and adults of any age. UPISketch was inspired by UPIC, Iannis Xenakis revolutionary, hybrid computerised tool, which was used in the 1950s as an innovative educational tool for simplifying music notation and composition. UPISketch strives to bring this exact philosophy into the 21st century. Organised as part of the 10 th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival, on 10 October 2018, the workshop is open to the public to people of all ages and backgrounds, who will have the opportunity to use UPISketch on the custom designed stations at The Shoe Factory, before having the chance to download the app and use it on their devices, free of charge. The workshop will be coordinated by a team from the European University Cyprus, led by Ithaca College Music Composition faculty Dr. Evis Sammoutis. *** UPISketch is commissioned by the European University Cyprus through the generous support of the European Union s Creative Europe Programme as part of the Interfaces project. Information: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / Entrance Free

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9 Thursday 11 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 7:30pm Composers living in the Diaspora A frank and open discussion with five of the Festival s featured composers who had to abandon their motherlands in order to pursue an international career in a foreign country, in the diaspora. One of the most interesting shifts during the last century was the decentralisation of Western music. That was partly due to aspects of globalization, cheaper travel, elimination of borders, the rapid internet revolution. Young composers from all over the world still choose to study and live in some of these Western powerhouses. But how does this affect them in their quest for personal and artistic identity? What are the consequences in the essence of their work? Does nostalgia play a key role in their works and does this assumed double nationality have implications in their compositional expression? The 10th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival presents an open discussion between five prolific composers from Cyprus and abroad who had to abandon their motherlands in order to pursue an international career in a foreign country, in the diaspora: Vassos Nicolaou (Cyprus / Germany), Evis Sammoutis (Cyprus / US), Andreas Tsiartas (Cyprus / UK), Thomas Simaku (Albania / UK), Jorge Grossmann (Peru / US). Information: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / Entrance Free

10 Friday 12 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 8:30pm Concert: KLANGFORUM WIEN The 10 th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival welcomes for the first time in Cyprus the celebrated Klangforum Wien. Universally regarded as one of the most exciting advocates of contemporary music in the world, Klangforum will present a unique concert, drawing on Cyprus significant heritage and location to endorse new music as a non-verbal vehicle between performers, composers and audience, who are all deriving from diverse cultural backgrounds. The concert, which will take place on Friday 12 October 2018, at The Shoe Factory, 8:30pm, will include the Cyprus premiere of masterpieces by Pierre Boulez, Claude Vivier, Helmut Lachenmann, Beat Furrer and Franco Donatoni, as well as the world premiere of three works commissioned by the Festival from Evis Sammoutis, Thomas Simaku and Jorge Grossmann. KLANGFORUM WIEN Ever since its first concert, under the baton of its founder Beat Furrer at the Palais Liechtenstein, Klangforum Wien has written musical history. Founded in 1985, the ensemble has premiered roughly 500 new pieces by leading composers from all over the world, giving a voice to the notes for the first time. It could if given to introspection look back on a discography of over 70 CDs, a series of honours and prizes and around 2000 appearances in the most important concert venues and opera houses in Europe, the Americas and Japan, renowned festivals as well as innovative initiatives for the youth. Over the years, Klangforum Wien has developed strong artistic links with outstanding composers, conductors, soloists and directors. These have been influential in forming Klangforum s profile, just as the ensemble has played an important part in forming and supporting the shape of their endeavours. During the last few years, individual members and the ensemble as a whole have made increasing efforts to pass on special techniques and forms of musical expression to a new generation of instrumentalists and composers. Since 2009, owing to a teaching assignment at the University of Performing Arts Graz, Klangforum Wien as a whole could style itself professor. The focus of all Klangforum s musicians lies in the constantly redefined artistic will of a collective for which music, finally, is an expression of their ethos and the awareness of their own share of responsibility for the present and future. And just as in their art, Klangforum Wien itself is nothing but a force, barely disguised by its metier, to improve the world. The moment they step onto the podium, the musicians know that only one thing counts: everything. Eros and the absoluteness of this conviction are at the root of the inimitable quality of their concerts. Information & Box Office: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm) Tickets: 15 / 10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation

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12 Sunday 14 October 2018 The Shoe Factory, Nicosia 8:30pm Concert: PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD & TAMARA STEFANOVICH The 10 th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival will culminate with a concert by the legendary Pierre- Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich. Partners in music as well as in life, Aimard and Stefanovich are renowned for their spectacular virtuosity and piercing intelligence. For their concert at The Shoe Factory, on Sunday 14 October 2018, 8:30pm, they will perform piano works solo and four-hands by Vassos Nicolaou, George Benjamin, György Ligeti, Elliott Carter, Steingrimur Rohloff, John Woolrich, Marco Stroppa, York Höller, and Yihan Chen. PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD piano Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career. Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod and in London with Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks included winning the First Prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition at the age of 16 and being appointed, three years later, by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble intercontemporain's first solo pianist. Aimard has collaborated closely and performed the premieres of many leading composers including Kurtág, Stockhausen, Boulez, Carter, Birtwistle and George Benjamin. Through his professorship at the Hochschule Köln as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and very personal light on music of all periods. Recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society s Instrumentalist Award (2005) and named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America (2007), Pierre-Laurent Aimard appears every season throughout the world with major orchestras under such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Eötvös, Sir Simon Rattle and Vladimir Jurowski. He has been invited to curate, direct and perform in a number of residencies, with projects at Carnegie Hall, New York's Lincoln Center, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Berlin's Philharmonie, Frankfurt s Alte Oper, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Tanglewood Festival and London's Southbank Centre. Aimard was the Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to Recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts with Boston Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and a European tour with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, recitals in Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, St Petersburg, Paris, Vienna, New York and at the new Boulezsaal in Berlin, and, as part of his three-year tenure as Artist-in-Residence at Southbank Centre, performances with Aurora Orchestra (Messiaen), Australian Chamber Orchestra (Mozart), Philharmonia Orchestra (Ravel) and curating a whole weekend dedicated to the music of Ligeti with whom he had a long association. Aimard s extended discography includes a number of award winning albums, including Bach's Art of Fugue for Deutsche Grammophon (Diapason d'or and Choc du Monde de la Musique), Ives Concord Sonata and Songs (Grammy award), and his most recent recording of Murail and Benjamin with the Bayerischer Rundfunk (2017 Gramophone award in the Contemporary category). In recognition of a life devoted to the service of music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard was awarded the prestigious 2017 International Ernest von Siemens Music Prize. TAMARA STEFANOVICH piano Known for her captivating interpretations in a wide repertoire, Tamara Stefanovich appears in some of the world s most prestigious concert venues, including the Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and London s Royal Albert and Wigmore Halls. She is featured in international festivals such as La Roque d Antheron,

13 Ravenna, Salzburger Festspiele, Styriarte Graz and Beethovenfest Bonn and she has appeared with such orchestras as the Cleveland and Chicago Symphonies, London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, WDR Sinfoniesorchester Köln, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights include her debut with the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, European tours with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under Vladimir Jurowski and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under George Benjamin, performing at the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), in Aldeburgh and Birmingham, Abrahamsen s Concerto for Left Hand with the London Sinfonietta, Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 with the Belgrade Philharmonic and Gershwin s Piano Concerto with Saarländisches Staatsorchester Saarbrücken, as well as recitals in Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Amsterdam s Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Monte Carlo, Southbank Centre, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Edinburgh International Festival and Lucerne Festival. Tamara Stefanovich has collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Vänskä and Susanna Mälkki, as well as leading composers including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös and György Kurtág. Her discography includes a number of acclaimed recordings, including the Grammy-nominated recording for Deutsche Grammophon of Bartók s Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra, and more recently, of Kurtág s Quasi una fantasia and Double concerto with Asko Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw/Jean-Guihen Queyras for ECM s complete recording of works for ensemble, which has just been released and received a 5* review in The Guardian. Information & Box Office: Pharos Arts Foundation Tel / (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm) Tickets: 15 / 10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation

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