The Pharos Arts Foundation opens the new season with the International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival, which this year celebrates its 15th anniversary. More than a week of performances awaits in October, presenting concerts and interdisciplinary events in the heart of Nicosia.
“The Pharos Contemporary is the first festival of new music that was ever inaugurated in Cyprus,” say organisers, “having presented numerous world premieres by the new generation of composers and the Cyprus premiere of many neglected 20th-century masterpieces. Recognised as one of Europe’s most ground-breaking annual events, the festival is rooted in the Pharos Arts Foundation’s deep commitment to music innovation and performance excellence, and it has offered an important platform for composers to collaborate with world-renowned soloists and ensembles.
“For 15 years,” they add, “the festival has been redefining the cultural landscape of Cyprus by challenging the barriers of conventional music-making, exploring newfound aural pathways, and introducing the audience to the ever-evolving world of contemporary music.”
From October 2 to October 11, the Shoe Factory in Nicosia will host four exciting concerts, alongside an array of parallel events such as lectures, workshops and educational activities for the youth.
The festival opens with the Cyprus debut of the remarkable Talea Ensemble. Heralded by the New York Times as “a crucial part of the New York cultural ecosphere”, Talea is the recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, having brought to life at least 50 commissions of major new works. For its Cyprus debut, Talea Ensemble will perform the Cyprus premiere of masterpieces by Sofia Gubaidulina, Gérard Grisey, Zosha Di Castri, Chaya Czernowin, as well as the world premiere of newly commissioned works by Cypriot composers George Christofi and Andreas Tsiartas.
The performances will continue on October 6 with the Madrid-based SIGMA Project, winner of the prestigious BBVA Foundation’s Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Musical Creators. The saxophone quartet is a crucial conduit for the instrumental music of the 21st century, having performed more than 150 concerts in illustrious auditoriums and festivals across the world. In Cyprus, the ensemble will perform a programme of works by Iannis Xenakis, Salvatore Sciarrino, Mauricio Sotelo, Helga Arias, Jesús Torres and a newly commissioned piece by the London-based Cypriot composer Effy Efthymiou.
A couple of days later, Chinese-American pianist George X Fu will take the floor after having performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as alongside renowned orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. His upcoming Cyprus festival performance on October 9 will feature Olivier Messiaen’s monumental work for solo piano Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus, a work written in Paris in 1944, during the city’s liberation from Nazi occupation.
The final concert of the festival is set for October 11 and the MikeDrop percussion duo. The duo, Mike Truesdell and Mike Compitello, is on a mission to intrigue, surprise and delight with their music. The two percussionists will ignite the stage with explosive rhythms and an unforgettable display of energy and virtuosity, in an impressive array of works ranging from John Cage, Georges Aperghis, Gérard Grisey and Tom Johnson back to Domenico Scarlatti, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, all the way through to a younger generation such as Nina Young, Javier Alvarez, Evis Sammoutis, Juri Seo and Francois Sarhan.
15th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival
Annual music festival with invited esteemed international musicians. October 2-11. The Shoe Factory, Nicosia. 8.30pm. www.pharosartsfoundation.org. Tel: 22-663871
