Fundraiser for Kefalonia Philharmonic

BIOGRAPHY

Vassilis Varvaresos
“Varvaresos not only has a natural yet finely honed technique, it springs as one with the wide scope of profound musicianship. Varvaresos engaged his audience with a performance that sizzled from start to finish.”

• New York Concert Review

March 2012 marked Mr. Varvaresos’ Carnegie Hall recital debut, to both audience and critical acclaim. Immediately following his debut, he was asked to play at the White House for President Barrack Obama.

Being re-invited to the Athens Festival of 2012, Mr. Varvaresos will be making his inaugural appearance at the Herodeion theater in Athens, performing Prokofiev’s Concerto no. 2 with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra.

In December 2010 Mr. Varvaresos was named Most Promising Young Greek Artist from the Critics’ Association of Greece. The dynamic young Greek pianist is also the 1st Prize winner of the Maria Chairogiorgou-Sigara 3rd International Piano Competition, held in Athens in May 2010.

Winner of the coveted First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at the age of 14, his recital debuts in New York and Washington were acclaimed. The New York Concert Review ended thus:
“Following this great program greatly played, Vassilis Varvaresos played a spicy Greek dance with all the exuberance and heartiness of a soul in love with life.” The Washington Post’s headline called him a “Young Master on the Rise.”

Mr. Varvaresos made his sensational New York orchestra debut in 2007 at Lincoln Center performing Lowell Liebermann’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Andreas Delfs. In October 2010, as a special guest of the Archbishop of the Greek-Orthodox Church of America, Mr. Varvaresos appeared with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra in Chopin’s Piano Concerto in e minor at Alice Tully Hall, while in the winter of 2008 he was asked to be the soloist with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra, representing Greece on a two-week tour of China, on the occasion of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Mr. Varvaresos, on this occasion, performed in front of a total of 6000 people.

Mr. Varvaresos made his recital debut in Athens, Greece appearing at the 2010 Athens Festival. During the same summer he has appeared in recital and chamber music concerts in Mykonos, Greece and in Constantinople and Cyprus.

Mr. Varvaresos’ previous seasons included concerts in Vienna’s legendary Musikverein, performances of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra in Leukosia and Lemesos under the baton of Spiros Pisinos, recitals in Mykonos, Greece and a featured concert at the International Piano Festival of Gijón, Spain.

Since then, he has performed on numerous occasions both in the U.S. and abroad. Highlight performances include an appearance with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, where Mr. Varvaresos performed Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in a double-bill special event as well as concerto and recital appearances in the U.S. and his native Greece.

As a soloist with orchestra in the United States, Mr. Varvaresos has performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Victoria Symphony in Texas, Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with the Westmoreland Symphony (PA), Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 with the Dearborn (MI) Orchestra Society, Haydn’s Concerto in D Major with the Hartford Symphony, Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 with the Modesto (CA) Symphony, Mozart’s Concerto no. 20 with the Altoona (PA) Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Concerto no. 1 with the JCC of Greater Washington, and Beethoven’s Concerto no.3 with the Sacramento Youth Symphony.

Mr. Varvaresos’ performances in his native Greece include the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto at the Megaron Hall with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra, Solon Michailides’s Piano Concerto and the Grieg Piano Concerto in the Megaron Hall of Athens, Rachmaninov’s Concerto no. 2, Mozart’s Concerto no. 20 and Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3, with the Orchestra of Thessaloniki. He has performed numerous times on Greek State Television, as well as on television in Italy, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Mr. Varvaresos has represented Greece in a special “EuroConcert” at the Museum of Modern Art in Helsinki, at the Greek Embassy in Milan, and for the U.S. Ambassador to Greece. He has also performed as a recitalist in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

Mr. Varvaresos is a founding member of Fourtissimo!, a group of four award-winning pianists whose goal is to reinvent the concert going experience through tasteful and uncompromising experimentation: unorthodox choice of repertoire, questions and choices concerning the form of the piano recital, and original compositions/transcriptions that test the limitations of the instrument and point the way towards a new type of instrumental virtuosity and inventiveness. The group’s debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in October 2010 received immediate audience and critical acclaim.

Mr. Varvaresos is also active as a composer. His dance composition Three Etudes was chosen to represent the Juilliard School in a Dance Forum hosted by the Pallucca Schüle in Dresden, Germany in October of 2007. He has written ten film scores, including Ellsworth Kelly: Fragmentsand Sir John Soane: An English Architect, an American Legacy produced by the Checkerboard Film Foundation. He has also composed the score for the short film Hardwood.

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1983, Mr. Varvaresos started studying music at the age of five, and received a scholarship to the Conservatory of Northern Greece. He continued his studies at the Conservatory with Milena Mollova. He won First Prize in the 1995 Petar Konjovic International Competition in Belgrade, the 1996 Pan-Hellenic Young Artist Competition in Athens, and was chosen as one of eleven young musicians from around the world to perform in Monte Carlo in a special “little Mozarts” concert organized by Italy’s RAI TV. Mr. Varvaresos holds a bachelor of music degree and a master of music degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. His paper on Claude Debussy, which won the Scholastic Distinction Award from The Juilliard School, was published in Greece by Kodikas Publications. In May 2011 Mr. Varvaresos received his Doctorate in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School. He was a student of Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Robert MacDonald.

Mr. Varvaresos is currently pursuing the prestigious Diplôme d’Artiste-Interpète degree at the Conservatoire Nationale et Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, France. He studies with Michel Dalberto.

He has been recipient of Musical Studies Grants from the Bagby Foundation and George & Marie Vergottis Scholarships at The Juilliard School. Since 2008, he has also been the recipient of the Gina Bachauer Foundation Grant for Outstanding Talent in Music and Onassis Foundation Grant.

Regi Alexandros Papa
Hailed as “an exciting young violinist with brilliant technique and an excellent sense of style” (The Strad Magazine), violinist Regi Álexandros Papa has dazzled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. In his native Greece, Mr. Papa has been heard in concert in numerous prestigious venues, including numerous appearances in the Athens Concert Hall, the Pallas Hall, the Parnassos Hall, and the Athenaeum Hall. He has been a featured soloist with many orchestras throughout Greece, among them the Soloists of Patras Orchestra (under Saulious Sondeckis), the Volos Symphony Orchestra (under Simeon Kogan) and the National Orchestra of Contemporary Music (under Andreas Pilarinos), the Kamerata Orchestra (under C. Warren-Green), the Greek National Radio Orchestra (under Nikos Tsouchlos), and the National State Orchestra of Thessaloniki.

He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2006, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the New York Senior Concert Orchestra under the baton of David Gilbert, and has also appeared as featured soloist with the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia. Mr. Papa has given numerous recitals in Greece, the United States, Italy and Spain, and also appeared as soloist with Feminarte Orchestra in Albania.

An avid chamber musician, he has performed extensively in various chamber ensembles throughout the United States and Europe. In May 2010 Mr. Papa was chosen to participate in the prestigious Carnegie Hall Chamber Workshop, and worked intensively with Leon Fleischer, Pamela Frank and Yo Yo Ma.

The recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, Mr. Papa was awarded 1st prize the 2002 Eurovision Contest (Greece), the Greek Ministry of Education’s Pan-Hellenic Contest, and the Wieniawski Competition (Kosciusko Foundation, New York City), and also received prizes in the Young Soloists Competition (Volos), the International “Jeunesses Musicales” Violin Competition (Romania), the Artur Balsam Competition for Duos (New York City), the Hudson Valley Competition for Strings, the Waldo Mayo Competition, and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Concerto Competition. He was awarded scholarships from the Mundo en Armonia Foundation, the Onassis Foundation, and was the recipient of the Marie and George Vergottis Memorial Scholarship at Juilliard.

A native of Athens, Mr. Papa was born into a family of violinists. He began playing the violin at age 5, and studied at the Doukas School in Athens. When he was 15, as winner of the Greek Eurovision Competition, he received an Onassis Foundation scholarship and moved to New York City where he began his studies with Isaac Malkin at Manhattan School of Music while continuing his formal education at the Professional Children’s School. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music with Isaac Malkin in 2008. He received the Marie and George Vergottis Memorial Scholarship to attend the Juilliard School as a student of Kyung Wha Chung, and was awarded a Master’s Degree from Juilliard in 2010. Papa is currently in the Doctoral program at Stony Brook University. Papa has participated in master classes of Lydia Mortkovitch, Zakhar Bron, Boris Belkin, Emmanuel Borok, Griegori Zhislin, Robert Mann, Lambert Orkis, and Mikhail Kopelman, and studied with Ana Chumachenko as a participant in the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Mr. Papa currently makes his home in New York City.

Konstantine Valianatos
Pianist Konstantine Valianatos has attracted attention as an exciting young musician of great talent in both the United States and in Europe. The recipient of numerous awards, he has won eleven first prizes, six of them at International Competitions, including the International Seiler Piano Competition, International Ibiza Piano Competition, the Senigallia International Piano Competition, and the San Gemini International Piano Competition, and the Aspen Music Festival Competition, and is the recipient of scholarships as winner of the Gina Bachauer, Yamaha, Onassis and I.K.Y. Foundation Competitions. In 2004, Valianatos’ artistry and integrity were officially acknowledged when the President of the Hellenic Republic Kostis Stefanopoulos presented him with the highest accolade from the Athens Academy.

Born in 1989, Valianatos already enjoys an international performing career. He has appeared as a featured soloist in concerto performances with the Greek National Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, and the Montevideo National Orchestra. He has been heard both in recital and as chamber musician in numerous prestigious venues, including the Salle Cortot in Paris, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation, and the Athens Megaron, and has been featured on WQXR’s McGraw-Hill Young Artist’s Showcase. During the upcoming 2012-2013 season, Valianatos will appear as soloist with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Carter Austin.

A dedicated chamber partner, with violinist Regi Papa and pianist Benjamin Capps he is a founding member of the Olympus Piano Trio, a group dedicated to celebrating chamber music and the Hellenic spirit. A participant in numerous summer festivals both as soloist and chamber pianist, including the Aspen International Music Festival, the Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, and the Poros Academy in Poros, Greece, Valianatos will be featured at the Kefalonia Dionisios Lavragas Festival in summer 2012.

Committed to sharing his gifts with the New York City community, and in particular with young people, Valianatos travels often to the Bronx to teach piano to schoolchildren from diverse backgrounds. He maintains ties with New York City’s Greek American community by accompanying the Greek Archdiocesan Metropolitan Youth Choir. In 2012, Valianatos will be teaching a piano class at the Juilliard School as a piano minor fellow.

A native of Athens, Greece, Valianatos began his piano studies at age seven at the National Conservatory of Greece. At age fourteen, he was awarded the “Diploma of Soloist” with highest distinction. He continued his studies at the Ecole Normale in Paris with Germaine Mounier and Agathe Leimoni, receiving the “Diplome Superieur d’Execution” and the “Diplome de Concertist”. Currently a student at the Juilliard School and recipient of the George and Marie Vergottis scholarship, he was awarded a Bachelor of Music Degree in May 2012 as a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Jerome Lowenthal. He will continue his studies at Juilliard as a Master’s Student in the fall of 2012 under the guidance of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin.

Valianatos has attended numerous master classes with renowned pianists, including Paul Badura-Skoda, Choong-Mo Kang, Ivo Pogorelich, Julian Martin, Veda Kaplinsky, Joseph Kalichstein, Alain Lefèvre, Jean-Claude Pennetier, France Clidat, Cyprien Katsaris, Martino Tirimo, duo Ganev, Raquel Boldorini, Aaron Shorr, Oxana Yablonskaya, Bernard Ringeissen and Luigi Mostacci, and has coached chamber music with Julian Martin, Joseph Kalichstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Bonnie Hampton, and Darrett Adkins.