Musicians

10.06.2023

The pianist and singer Olivia Trummer enthrals her audience with a vivid stage presence and a unique style which the press has started out to call the „Olivia Trummer style“. Recipient of the prestigious Jazz Award Baden-Württemberg in 2019, she fascinates equally as a pianist, singer and composer. With her complex and likewise catchy music she is considered internationally to be one of the most interesting jazz musicians of her generation. The formative years spent in the jazz metropole of New York alongside her deep connection to Classical music serve as ongoing sources of inspiration within her own musical universe. Olivia Trummer has been invited to perform her music in the US, in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, England, Ireland, France, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Apart from leading several projects of her own, she is a member of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s „Caipi“ band that has toured extensively through America, Canada, Europe, China and Japan. Moreover, for several years she is bonding more and more with the vibrant jazz scene of Italy which manifests in collaborations with Fabrizio Bosso, Rosario Bonaccorso and Mario Biondi. During the concerts, the Olivia Trummer Trio displays pure joy and a wide range of dynamics that also include powerfully silent, intense moments. Olivia Trummer is leaving a mark with her songs that reveal a personal view on love and letting go while arbitrating between heart and mind. Rhythmically and harmonically intertwined, the trio is heading into a wide cosmos between jazz, pop and singer-songwriter and optimistically follows their own compass.

 

24.06.2023

Kostas Siskos was born in Greece, on the island of Corfu. In 2000 he began his postgraduate studies in French Horn at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, under the direction of Professor Hector McDonald (principal horn of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra). During his studies he received lessons on the modern double horn, the Viennese horn and the natural horn, graduating with honours in 2002.  From 2000 to 2003 Kostas Siskos was the principal horn of the Athens National Opera Orchestra and since 2004 he has been the principal horn of the Athens State Orchestra. Kostas Siskos has also been a regular substitute with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (on the Viennese horn), the Concentus Musicus under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt on the natural horn, and several other European orchestras. In addition to his orchestral activities, Kostas Siskos performs regularly as a horn soloist and is a member of several wind chamber music ensembles in Athens. Kostas Siskos has been active as a pedagogue for many years, with a special emphasis on teaching very young people. Since 1997 he has been teaching at the “Diethnes Conservatory” in Athens and at the “Ionian Conservatory” in Corfu. With students ranging from 7 to 35 years old, he is the teacher of the largest horn class in Greece in terms of number of students. He is also the first and so far only horn teacher who teaches his students both the Natural horn and the Viennese horn. His students are very successful and hold positions in several of the leading Athens orchestras as well as orchestras in Austria. Mr. Siskos is tireless in his efforts to organize workshops and symposia in Athens, for his students as well as for horn players throughout Greece, both students and professionals. He frequently invites world-renowned horn players to Greece for this purpose.

Evie Papathanassiou studied piano and harmony at the Municipal Conservatory of Larissa, counterpoint and fugue at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki, musicology at the Music Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and cello at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. She continued her studies at Trinity College London and at the University of London. She won numerous first prizes in competitions. As a member of the string quartet TetARTon and various other ensembles, she performs and records regularly in Greece and abroad. Since 2001 she has been a permanent member of the Athens State Orchestra. She also conducts a choir.

Kostas Chardas has studied accordion, piano, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and musicology in Greece and abroad. In 2005, he received his PhD in music analysis from the University of Surrey. He is an associate professor of systematic musicology at the Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research and teaching areas are Music theory and analysis, 20th and 21st-century music, Greek music, theoretical approaches to music performance, and Greek pop/rock.  In addition to being a pianist, he is an author and lectures for the Hellenic Studies Program at Columbia University and the Harvard Summer Program in Greece.

 

09.07.2023

Kirill Petrenko, the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has described her as “a mature personality at the piano” 🙂 Born in 1993, Hanna Bachmann has established herself as an internationally renowned pianist. She has performed at venues including the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Bonn Beethovenfest, the Blüthner Konzertreihen Vienna, the Kultursommer Semmering and the Bodenseefestival. In 2018 she made her American debut, which was followed in 2019 by a promising tour of the USA and Canada and her debut in Israel. In addition to her solo activities, Hanna Bachmann is a passionate chamber musician and lied pianist. In 2023, for example, she made her debut with mezzo-soprano Isabel Pfefferkorn in Saudi Arabia. She has already released two piano albums, including Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, as well as an album as a member of the Schwarzenberg Trio and the album ‘Dream with me’ with singer Elsa Janulidu.   www.hannabachmann.com

Greek-Romanian violist Ilias Livieratos, Principal Violist of the Athens State Orchestra has been awarded prestigious prizes. Originally from Preveza Greece, Livieratos studied at various institutions, including the Mozarteum Salzburg, in Munich, Würzburg and Stockholm. Although he had begun studying medicine in Athens, he decided to abandon it in favour of music. Livieratos has worked as a solo violinist and violist in various Greek and German orchestras. As a soloist, Livieratos has performed among others Vivaldi’s Concerto for 3 Violins and Bach’s 6th Brandenburg Concerto on original instruments. Since April 2022 Livieratos has worked closely with Greece’s most famous soloist, Violinist Leonidas Kavakos, originally for a charity concert for Ukraine, where they performed Brahms’ Piano Quartets. Later as soloists with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. More concerts in Europe and Asia are planned for 2023 and 2024, as well as a recording for Sony Classical. Livieratos plays a rare viola by Giuseppe Antonio and Giovanni Gagliano from 1800 sponsored by Handelsbanken Sverige and awarded as part of the Jan Wallander Prize.    www.koa.gr/en/musicians/ilias-ion-livieratos

 

23.08.2023

The German-Greek Aris Alexander Blettenberg, was born in 1994. His maternal family is from Kalamata, where he spends a large part of his life. His studies in piano, chamber music and conducting followed with Antti Siirala, Lars Vogt (†), Silke Avenhaus and Bruno Weil in Munich, Hannover and Salzburg. In October 2021, he won the 16th International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and has also been a Bösendorfer Artist since 2022. He has already performed at the Vienna Musikverein, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and many other venerable venues. In spring 2023, Blettenberg made his debut as conductor and pianist with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra with a tour that was highly acclaimed by audiences and the press.

In another collaboration with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra as conductor, Blettenberg took over the musical direction in place of the recently deceased Lars Vogt. In May 2023, Blettenberg opened the Saxon Mozart Festival as pianist and conductor. As a 2023 scholarship recipient, he performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival. He also made his debut this summer at the Schwetzingen Festival with the Trio Neo and performed at the Vienna Musikverein with Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto.

Blettenberg is the designated music director of the Munich Chamber Opera. In April 2023, a CD (Genuin) of Beethoven piano concertos, custom arrangement by himself for twelve musicians was recorded. In May 2023, his first solo album entitled “Hommage à Beethoven” (including own transcriptions) was released on the AVI/Deutsche Grammophon label. www.arisalexanderblettenberg.com

Philipp Scheucher
His musical interpretations, in addition to his passion for playing, are of such concentrated power! Be it the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig or the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg – Philipp Scheucher has already played in concert halls whose podiums rank among the most important in Europe. Particularly significant for the young Austrian pianist is his natural charisma and the joy of making music, which carries away the audience.

As first prize winner of the “International Music Competition Cologne”, he is described by the WDR with the following words: “His absolutely present appearance and the lightning clean, alert sound of his interpretation set new quality standards.” It is also a great concern for him not only to make music himself, but also to pass on his knowledge to others. Philipp Scheucher teaches at the Johann-Joseph-Fux Conservatory in Graz and is a lecturer at international master classes in the USA, Brazil, Russia, Japan, etc. As second prize winner of the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna, his concert activities take him all over the world.

Phillip Scheucher’s active collaboration with renowned conductors and orchestras, such as the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Dirk Kaftan, the Great Orchestra Graz “recreation” under Michael Hofstetter and Mei-Ann Chen, the K&K Philharmonic Orchestra or the WDR Radio House Orchestra under Alexander Prior, should also be emphasized. Many times his concerts have been recorded and broadcast on international radio. Since 2022 Philipp Scheucher is a member of SYMPHONIACS, an international electro-classical music project of the Berlin-based composer and producer Andy Leomar, which combines classical music and electronic club music.
www.philippscheucher.com

 

 

07.09.2023

The German-Greek pianist, conductor and composer Aris Alexander Blettenberg, was born in 1994. His maternal family is from Kalamata, where he spends a large part of his life. His studies in piano, chamber music and conducting followed with Antti Siirala, Lars Vogt (†), Silke Avenhaus and Bruno Weil in Munich, Hannover and Salzburg. In October 2021, he won the 16th International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and has also been a Bösendorfer Artist since 2022. He has already performed at the Vienna Musikverein, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and many other venerable venues.

In spring 2023 Blettenberg made his debut as conductor and pianist with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra which is highly acclaimed by audiences and the press.

In May 2023, Blettenberg opened the Saxon Mozart Festival as pianist and conductor. As a 2023 scholarship recipient, he performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival. He also made his debut this summer at the Schwetzingen Festival with the Trio Neo and performed at the Vienna Musikverein with Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto.

Blettenberg is the designated music director of the Munich Chamber Opera. In April 2023, a CD (Genuin) of Beethoven piano concertos, custom arrangement by himself for twelve musicians was recorded. In May 2023, his first solo album entitled “Hommage à Beethoven” (including own transcriptions) was released on the AVI/Deutsche Grammophon label.
For more information: www.arisalexanderblettenberg.com

Andrej Skorobogatko was born in Ukraine. He studied oboe at the Moscow Gnesin Academy of Music, at the University of Arts in Graz and at the University of Music in Hannover, as well as orchestral conducting at the University of Arts in Graz. He has many years of relevant orchestral practice as principal oboist in the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Graz Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Bach Soloists. Numerous international concert tours from Germany to China. Andrej Skorobogatko has been the musical director of various projects of the Graz Children’s Theater “Next Liberty” for over ten years and has participated in numerous opera productions. The works “Nabucco” by Giuseppe Verdi and “The Creation” by Joseph Haydn were performed under his direction and arrangement not only in Graz but also in Vienna, Essen and Leipzig (Gewandhaus). Andrej Skorobogatko has been the conductor of the Graz University Orchestra since 2011. During this time, the orchestra participated in the ” Styrian Autumn”, performed at the Castle Concerts in Gleinstätten and traveled to Maribor, St. Petersburg, Trieste, Zagreb and Mérida, Mexico.

The Graz University Orchestra, since 1992, consists to a large extent of students, members and graduates of the University of Graz and the Graz University of Technology – from students to university professors.
In addition to the symphonic semester concerts held twice a year in the auditorium of the University of Graz, additional concerts, chamber music projects and concert tours are always on the program. In 2015, an associated chamber orchestra was founded. Tours have taken the orchestra to Greece, Holland, Spain, Finland, Turkey, Slovenia, Russia, Italy, Croatia and Mérida. www.guo.at