CONCERT & RECITAL
SERIES
Violin and Piano Recital with
Wolfgang Schröder (violin) & Florian Uhlig (piano)
Wednesday 21 March 2012
The Shoe Factory, Nicosia / 8.30pm
The Pharos Arts Foundation presents a recital with Wolfgang Schröder,
Concertmaster of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Florian Uhlig,
hailed by the Musical Opinion magazine as an one of the most individual and
imaginative young pianists of our time. The recital will take place on
Wednesday 21 March 2012, at The Shoe Factory / 8:30pm, and will include
works by Mozart, Ravel and Richard Strauss
Wolfgang Schröder / violin
“…wonderfully elevated quality of Wolfgang Schröder’s violin…” The Strad
Born into a South German family, Wolfgang Schröder's earliest studies began
with his parents. In 1980, Ana Chumachenko became his teacher and played a
decisive role in his development as a violinist.
At the early age of 17, Schröder won the first prize at the German state
competition Jugend musiziert (Youth makes music) and subsequently a
scholarship at the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA). He has
performed with Yehudi Menuhin and Alberto Lysy, both as soloist and chamber
musician, throughout the world, in venues such as the Barbican Centre in
London and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
After graduating from IMMA , he continued his studies at the Mozarteum
University of Music in Salzburg under Prof. Sandor Vegh, and thereafter at
the Mannes School of Music in New York under Prof. Aaron Rosand. Wolfgang
Schröder’s solo career has included performances with the Bavarian Chamber
Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech
Symphony Orchestra, Talich Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic,
Rubinstein Philharmony Lodz, Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic, Camerata
Salzburg, Nuremberg Symphony, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Israel Soloists
Ensemble, Athens State Orchestra, etc. He was also the artistic director of
the European Community Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) from 1993 until 1995, and
has performed a number of highly acclaimed concert tours worldwide. He has
collaborated with conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreko, Daniel
Raiskin, Simon Gaudenz, Marc Kadim, to name just a few.
As soloist and chamber player, Wolfgang Schröder has appeared in prestigious
venues such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the
Vienna Konzerthaus, as part of the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center
and the Frick Collection Museum in New York, the Masters Series in London's
Wigmore Hall, and the Athens Megaron. Schröder’s chamber music partners have
included artists like Wenzel Fuchs, Eduard Brunner, Charles Neidich,
Vladimir Mendelssohn, Cyprien Katsaris, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen,
Daniel Raiskin, Ramon Jaffe, Levon Chilingirian and Gustav Rivinius. He also
has been invited to major chamber music festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber
Music Festival in Finland, the Open Chamber Musicians Seminar at Prussia
Cove (England), the Moritzburg Festival in Germany, the West Cork Festival
in Ireland, the Umea and Bostad Festivals (Sweden), the International Music
Festival Middelburg (Holland), the International Festival of Echternach
(Luxemburg) and the Ojika Festival, Japan.
As an active chamber musician, he founded, in 1992, the Belcanto String Trio
and from 1996 to 2005 he regularly performed as the violinist of the Trio
Parnassus. In September 2001 the Trio Parnassus received the prestigious
Echo Classic Award for their complete recording of the Schumann piano trios.
Since 1998 he has been artistic director of the Camerata Stuttgart.
Appearances with the Camerata Stuttgart include performances in prestigious
concert halls like the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Megaron Music Hall of
Athens, Liederhalle of Stuttgart and the Dortmund Opera House.
Wolfgang Schröder has recorded for the MDG, Divox, Ars Production, Thorofon,
Symicon and CPO labels. Since 2005 he is the First Concertmaster of the
Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He plays on a violin 1857 by Jean Baptist
Vuillaume.
Florian Uhlig / piano
"Florian Uhlig gave a unique piano recital and was celebrated
enthusiastically by his audience before the interval already. [...] Sheer
virtuosity, though without showmanship, coupled with so much musicality as
only the greatest of artists possess." Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt
Florian Uhlig’s musical personality ranges between introversion and
emphasis, his playing is marked by curiosity for all facets of music,
passion informs his activities in whatever is related to musical, pianistic
expression and is reflected in many different forms. The mental
restlessness, the serious curiosity to get to the bottom of things, is
Florian Uhlig’s essential talent, along with and prior to his effortless
virtuosity; his activity and creativity are driven by the desire to trace
the interrelations of the individual works with their historic and current
reality. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present, but contains
a good deal more than merely the well-known “war-horses” of the literature.
Florian Uhlig is active wherever composers formulate something of interest,
where the handicraft of playing piano can and must transform itself into
feeling and meaning. Thinking and playing according to set patterns does not
stand a chance. When putting together recital programs, he permits himself
eccentricities, enthusiastically lets himself get carried away, casts the
familiar together with the unfamiliar – and penetrates to the core of the
music with an always reliable sense of style, affording the delight of an
ingenious musical discourse.
Florian Uhlig was born in Düsseldorf and gave his first piano recital at the
age of twelve. He studied in London with Peter Feuchtwanger and continued
his studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in
London, where he now lives, as well as in Berlin.
Florian Uhlig’s orchestra debut was at the Barbican in London in 1997. Since
then, his busy concert schedule has taken him to major concert stages in
Berlin, Brussels, Caracas, Dresden, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Cape Town, Cologne,
London, Luxemburg, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Salzburg,
Seoul, Venice, Washington and Vienna. Florian Uhlig has played concerts with
orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the
Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, the
Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart
Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Recently, he made guest appearances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and
the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela performing Krzysztof
Penderecki’s Piano Concerto conducted by the composer. Invitations to
festivals led him to appear at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Chamber
Music Festival in Elmau Castle, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, the MDR
Summer of Music, France Musique Paris, the Schleswig-Holstein Music
Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Vienna Festival Weeks and many
more.
Along with his work as a soloist, Florian Uhlig is also a sought-after
chamber musician and song pianist. He was the last partner of legendary
baritone Hermann Prey and has worked together with Mirijam Contzen, Alban
Gerhardt, Franz Hawlata, Roberto Saccá and Ingolf Turban, the Consortium
Classicum, the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin, as well as with actors Christoph
Bantzer, Cornelia Froboess, Gudrun Landgrebe and Nina Hoger.
Since 2008 Florian Uhlig has been Artistic Director of the Johannesburg
International Mozart Festival.
PROGRAMME:
W.A. Mozart (1756 – 1791) Sonata for piano and violin No. 32 in B-flat major
KV 454 (1784)
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major (1927)
Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 (1888)
Ticket Prices:
Adults: EUR25
Friends and Supporters of the Pharos Arts Foundation / Concessions: EUR20
