Samos Young Artists Festival | eKathimerini.com

The Samos Young Artists Festival (SYAF) returns for its 14th year at the ancient theatre of Pythagorion in Samos, bringing together numerous Greek and international emerging musicians and renowned artists who embark on a journey from all corners of the world to converge at the ancient Theatre in Samos.

This year’s special guest is Leonidas Kavakos, the Greek superstar of classical music and one of the most brilliant violinists in the history of musical performance.

For the first time in the festival’s history, there will be the world premiere of a piece written especially for the festival by Curtis Institute composer Adrian Wong, who composed this work while spending a month in Samos, on a scholarship from the Schwarz Foundation and the Curtis Institute of Music. This composition as well as many masterpieces of the classical repertoire will be performed by internationally acclaimed and multi-awarded artists such as Dionysis Grammenos, Alexia Mouza, Alexandros Sakarellos, the prestigious award winner Yoonshin Song, members of the renowned Erinyes Quartet Stergios Theodorides and Marija Räisänen and pianist and Julliard School graduate Janice Carissa.

Furthermore, the baritone Vitor Bispo, the Irish singer Niamh O’Sullivan, participant, and alumnus of the Opernstudio, Bayrische Staatsoper, together with pianist Marcelo Amaral. Portuguese singer Beatriz Felicio will perform with the guitarist João Domingos and Rui Poço on Portuguese guitar, in a wonderful evening of Fado. French-Dominican singer Cyril Aimée will perform her work with internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and producer Mathis Picard, Italian bassist Matteo Bortone and French jazz drummer Yoann Serra.

The artistic directors of the Samos Young Artists Festival are again this year the cellist Timotheos Gavriilides-Petrin, a Curtis Institute of Music alumnus, winner of the first prize at the prestigious Paulo Cello International Competition in Finland and the pianist Masha Ilyasov, born and raised in Minsk, Belarus, who lives and teaches in Munich.

Seven days filled with music in the enchanting ancient theatre of Pythagorion, overlooking the sea, the islands and the coast of neighbouring Turkey.

The Samos Young Artists Festival presents a programme of live music covering a wide  variety of genres, from solo piano, timeless melodies of the operatic repertoire, chamber music for strings and wind instruments, jazz, to Fado music. The festival runs from 7th to 13th August.

This year’s programme:

Wednesday, August 7

Jazz Night
Cyrille Aimée – voice
Mathis Picard – piano
Matteo Bortone – bass
Yoann Serra – percussion

Thursday, August 8

Enchanting Melodies
Works by Prokofiev, Webern, Mozart
Dionysis Grammenos – clarinet
Alexandros Sakarellos – violin
Yoonshin Song – violin
Marija Räisänen – viola
Stergios Theodoridis – cello
Janice Carissa – piano

World premiere

The piece written especially for the festival by the Curtis Institute composer, Adrian Wong Part of the collaboration between Schwarz Foundation and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Friday, August 9

My Song Rings Out…
Opera Night

Works by Dvořák, Ravel, Brahms, Donizetti, Bizet
Niamh O’Sullivan – mezzo-soprano
Vitor Bispo – baritone
Marcelo Amaral – piano

Saturday, August 10

Janice Carissa – Solo Piano Recital

Works by Scarlatti, Albeniz, Schubert, Schumann

Janice Carissa – piano

Sunday, August 11

Leonidas and Friends
Works by Ravel and Brahms
Leonidas Kavakos – violin
Alexandros Sakarellos – violin
Ilias Liveratos – viola
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin – cello
Alexia Mouza – piano

Monday, August 12

Dialogues

Works by Schumann, Shostakovich, Poulenc, de Sarasate

Dionysis Grammenos – clarinet
Yoonshin Song – violin
Alexandros Sakarellos – violin
Ilias Liveratos – viola
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin – cello
Janice Carissa – piano
Alexia Mouza – piano

Tuesday, August 13

Night of Fado
Beatriz Felício – vocals
Rui Poço – Portuguese guitar
João Domingos – guitar

Samos Young Artists Festival is one of the oldest music festivals in the North Aegean, taking place since 2010 non-stop, while in 2018 it received an award from the Union of Greek Critics for Drama and Music as the “Best Peripheral Music Festival in Greece”. To this day, more than 210 have coexisted, making Samos and the festival a musical destination. Well-established music meets new sounds. Ticket prices are kept low, at 5 euros per concert, so that the opportunity is given to as broad an audience as possible to take part in the events, while all proceeds are given to the cultural association of Pythagorion “Lykourgos”.

About the Schwarz Foundation

The Schwarz Foundation is a private non-profit organisation aiming to foster the exchange of ideas and practices between cultures and countries. In light of the fact that Europe is experiencing significant transformations that call for new ways of thinking, the Foundation’s initiatives aspire to contribute to this process of re-evaluation and re-thinking the continent, particularly Southeast Europe and its relation to its surroundings within a global context. It initiates and supports projects related to this geopolitical space, encouraging art production, research, publications and discussions relative to the cooperation between Greece, Germany and other European countries and internationally. Initiatives include residencies for visual and music artists, music concerts, fellowships for artists and researchers, exhibitions, education and community support projects. While focusing on the domain of contemporary culture, the Foundation believes that the awareness of an enduring historical tradition and environmental issues can play a vital role in understanding current problems as well as in designing the future.