Olympus Trio Concert & National Entrance Exam Awards

BIOGRAPHY

Ben Capps
Exciting young American cellist Ben Capps enjoys a versatile performing career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. His artistry has been praised as “most appealing” by the New York Times, “virtuosic and impassioned” by the Barre Montpelier Times, the Holland Times hailed Capps as a “young cello phenomenon from New York” with “dazzling technique and a fearsomely meaty tone”, and the Epoch Times proclaimed that “Capps has it all . . . cello playing of the very highest standard.” He has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., Mann Hall in Tel Aviv, Meyerson Hall in Dallas, and the Auditorio Nacional, the Palace of Fine Arts and Sala Nezahualcoytl in Mexico City. He has appeared as soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, the Manchester Music Festival Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-College Symphony, and the Manhattan School of Music Composer’s Orchestra. Recent performance highlights include a recital tour of China (Xiamin, Fouzhou and Gulangyu), and recital appearances in New York, Greece and Spain. Highlights of the 2013 season include solo performances of the Schumann Concerto with the Danbury Symphony & The Liora Chamber Orchestra and Shostakovich Concerto no. 1 with the Orchestra nica de Jalisco, as well as a performance of The Complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas in a single concert.

At age 21, Capps was appointed principal cellist of Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, a dynamic New York based symphony orchestra founded by conductor Alondra de la Parra, whose highly regarded premier Sony Classics recording Mi Alma Mexicana attained platinum status. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the Bowdoin, Schlern Int’l (Italy), Burgos Int’l (Spain) and Summit Summer Festivals, the Perlman Music Program, and the ChamberFest and FOCUS! Festivals in Lincoln Center. Mr. Capps has made numerous appearances on Manhattan’s Tactus Series, and has performed on Trinity Church’s Music at One series, numerous appearances at Bargemusic, and has appeared as guest artist with Manchester Music Festival, Summit Int’l Festival, the Burlington Ensemble, and the International Chamber Soloists, Lyrica and Lumina Chamber Music. He is the founder of the Capanglia Trio, the Sonar Players, the New York Chamber Collective, and most recently, the Olympus Piano Trio which offers an evening of piano trios at the Athens Megaron Concert Hall in January 2013. He has been heard on American radio on the McGraw Hill Young Artists’ Showcase, and was recently the subject of an hour-long special on VPR which documented his 2012 solo (unaccompanied) cello tour of Vermont. Additionally, Capps will be heard performing The Complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas with interviews and commentary on Vermont Public Radio in 2013.

An ardent performer of new music, he is committed to presenting music of today’s composers and has given numerous performances of new cello works, including Daniel Vezza Pulsations for Cello and Chamber Orchestra (composed for Mr. Capps), Marcus Paus Cello Sonnets, Anna Klein Fits and Starts, Daniel Vezza Circles, Reiko Futing Kaddish: The Art of Losing, and Robert Karpay’s Cello Concerto. His world premiere recording of Andrew Violette’s 72 minute Songs and Dances for unaccompanied cello (Innova Records) was released in June 2010, Violette’s 48 minute Cello Sonata (Innova Records) and his recording of Anna Klein’s Fits and Starts (Tzaddik) was selected as WQXR’s free download from the Album of the Week earlier this year.

A native of New York City, Ben Capps began playing the cello at age four with Nellis DeLay at New York’s School for Strings. At 10 he was admitted to Juilliard Pre-College, where he studied for seven years with Anne Alton, Andre Emelianoff, and modern cello guru Fred Sherry. He received a Bachelor’s degree at Manhattan School of Music, and a Master of Music Degree from Juilliard in May 2010, both under the guidance of the great David Soyer of the Guarneri String Quartet.

He is currently in the Graduate Diploma program at New England Conservatory in Boston, where he is a student of Laurence Lesser. He is the recipient of many awards, including the New York State Association of Music Teachers Scholarship Competition 1999; Juilliard Pre-College Symphony, Concerto Competition, 2001, the Lillian Fuchs Award, 2004, the Francis Goelet Scholarship (Juilliard 2008-2009), the Irving Mulde Scholarship (Juilliard, 2009-10), and the Piatigorsky Scholarship (New England Conservatory 2012-13). He has coached with numerous cellists, including Bernard Greenhouse, Ko Iwasaki, Paul Katz, and Nathanial Rosen, has performed in master class for Steven Isserlis, Alexander Rudin, Mischa Maisky, Natalia Gutman, Peter Wylie, Timothy Eddy, Matt Haimowitz and Jonathan Biss, and has coached chamber music with Joseph Kalichstein, Sylvia Rosenberg, Isidore Cohen, Seymour Lipkin, Alexander Slobodyanik, Andre Michel Schub, and Vivian Weilerstein.

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 in 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.