2nd Cyprus - Russia Gala

The cultural and charity event «Cyprus – Russia Gala», with the participation of renowned names in the field of music, is a big celebration of culture, recording once again the profound cultural and traditional bonds between Cyprus and Russia.

The artists that will participate are:

Yuri Bashmet

As the world’s leading violin player and one of the most important personalities of the Russian cultural scene, Yuri Bashmet has performed as a soloist with the world’s major orchestras over the past 25 years. He has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphonie Orchestra. Bashmet has played at all major festivals, including the BBC Proms and enjoys particularly close associations with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Igor Oistrakh, Gidon Kremer and Isaac Stern. In addition to his solo work, Bashmet has toured the world with his own chamber orchestra, the Moscow Soloists and he is the Director of the Symphony Orchestra of New Russia.

Igor Butman

Saxophone virtuoso, bandleader, club owner and television host, Igor Butman is Russia’s number one jazz personality. In 1976 he entered Leningrad’s Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music, where during his second year he dropped the classical clarinet for the jazz saxophone. When Butman became part of the jazz group ‘Allegro’, his big sound and boyish exuberance earned him standing ovations and many new fans. Moving to New York in 1989, Butman worked with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra receiving rave reviews from the most respectable jazz magazines. Butman has performed as a special guest with Ray Charles, George Benson and Al Jarreau as well as the leading violinist Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists. Igor Butman is an artistic director at Le Club, Moscow’s top jazz venue, where he appears with his big band every Monday.

Mashina Vremeni

Formed in the late 1960s Mashina Vremeni, Russian for ‘Time Machine’ is recognized as one of the ‘patriarchs’ of Russian rock music. The band’s members are Andrei Makarevich, the founder and principal singer-songwriter, Alexander Kutikov, bass player and producer, guitarist Evgeny Margulis, drummer Valeriy Efremov and keyboard player Andrei Derzhavin. Although presented as a rock band, Mashina Vremeni incorporates many different genres. Through the stages in its development, the band has played many styles, beginning with imitations of Western rock leaders, later on incorporating Eastern European and Asian folk influences and then punk, blues and slow ballads giving the band its unique style.

Zoe Nicolaidou

Originally from Limassol, soprano Zoe Nicolaidou studied in Vienna before making her debut in 2005 with the Tonkunstler Orchester Niederosterreich in Martinu’s ‘Veselohra na Moste’ at the Retz Festival. A year later she made her debut at the Brahms Hall of the Vienna’s Musikverein. Zoe Nicolaidou was the first prize winner in the international competition at Schlossoper Haldensten 2007, where she performed the role of Susanna (‘The Marriage of Figaro’). She has an extensive concert repertoire and has sung Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’, ‘Magnificat’ and various cantatas, Haydn’s ‘Stabat Mater’ as well as different masses by Mozart. She has toured Austria, Hungary, Germany, Cyprus, Greece and Poland.

The Moscow Soloists

In 1992 Yuri Bashmet founded the Moscow Soloists chamber orchestra by gathering together a group of young string players nominated by their professors as the most accomplished and gifted graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. Rich and diverse, its repertoire ranges from masterpieces of the classical canon to challenging new works by living composers. Many of the world’s greatest musicians have performed as soloists with the ensemble including Sviatoslav Richter, Gidon Kremer and Mstislav Rostropovich. The ensemble has performed in forty countries at such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin, the Barbican in London, the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Paris’ Cite de la Musique and Rome’s Academia Santa Cecilia.

Marios Papadopoulos

One of Cyprus’ outstanding musicians, Marios Papadopoulos’ career as a pianist and conductor started with his 1974 London debut. In 1998 he founded the University of Oxford Orchestra in Residence the Oxford Philomusica of which he is Music Director. He holds a doctorate in music from City University and is a fellow by special election of Keble College, Oxford. He has recently directed the complete cycle of all the Mozart Concertos from the keyboard in seven concerts with the Oxford Philomusica in Oxford. Apart from the complete Beethoven piano sonatas which he is currently recording, his prolific output as a recording artist includes performances of Stravinsky’s ‘Concerto for Piano and Wind’ with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; works by Mozart; works by Mussorgsky, including ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’; piano works by Cesar Franck; and Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues.

Alkistis Protopsalti

A major figure in the world of Greek music, Alkistis Protopsalti’s career has spanned more than 30 years. Since releasing her first record in 1975 she has recorded many more, including the recent CD ‘Na se vlepo na gelas’. Alkistis has toured Europe as well as USA, Cuba, Israel and China where she gave a recital at Beijing’s Forbidden City during 2007’s 35th anniversary celebrations of Greek-Chinese friendship. At the 2004 Athens Olympics she had the honor of carrying the Olympic Flame. She has performed with the Kremlin Presidential Symphonic Orchestra and the Kremlin Choir at the Moscow Opera where she was delighted to hear a Russian choir sing in Greek. A regular performer in Cyprus, fans will be delighted to know she will be performing in the Second Cyprus-Russia Gala.

Russian Song Ensemble

The Russian Song Ensemble of Nadezhda Babkina’s Theater is one of the leading and most popular folk groups in Russia. The ensemble was formed in 1974 at the Gnesin Institute in Moscow. Its first members were a small group of female folksong students headed by folk diva Nadezhda Babkina. Later the group was supplemented with male voices enlarging the range of its repertoire. Each new programme began to take shape into a unique mini-show employing the full range of Russian folk instruments including rattles, whistles, bells, spoons and gusli. Today they preserve the important qualities of the Russian folk song tradition; its spiritual depth and vitality.

Tickets can be purchased through:

Marfin Laiki Bank: 39 Arch. Makarios Avenue, Nicosia, tel. +357 22 812 254
Marfin Laiki Bank: 121 Arch. Makarios Avenue, Limassol, tel. +357 25 854 703
Marfin Laiki Bank: 10 Apostolou Pavlou Avenue, Paphos, tel. + 357 26 816 131
Ensemble Productions Ltd: tel. +44 20 8832 7424, email [email protected]