Picasso's Three Musicians, 1921

Permanent Chamber Music Seminar

It is with great joy that the Athens State Orchestra adds the "Permanent Chamber Music Seminar”, an initiative of the cellist Angelos Liakakis and pianist the Titos Gouvelis, to its Educational and Social programme from the 2021–2022 season on. The two artists, both members of the Orchestra, are known not only for their activities as soloists, but also for their long and ongoing collaboration in the field of chamber music. Considering it their duty to pass on their knowledge and experience to the younger generation, they have been running the "Permanent Chamber Music Seminar” for the last seven years with a view to introducing young students and professional musicians to the particular challenges of the chamber music repertoire. The primary focus of the seminar are the chamber music ensembles in which strings play alongside the piano. To immerse the participants as deeply as possible in the target repertoire, the seminar takes place over several months, allowing the leaders to observe the students’ progress at regular intervals. The response of the young musicians who have taken part in the Seminar to date has been overwhelmingly positive, confirming its value and necessity.

This year too, the seminar is an Athens State Orchestra educational activity; thus, the classes will be held in the Athens State Orchestra's rehearsal room in the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, while the final concert performed by the ensembles formed for the Seminars will be given in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall at the Athens Concert Hall in the spring of 2023. The Athens State Orchestra is exploring additional venues to afford the ensembles further opportunities to showcase their work; any further concert appearances will be announced in due course.

INFORMATION

- A total of seven classes are planned, each lasting one and a half hours. They will take place between December 2022 and April 2023 on these dates: 03/12, 17/12, 14/01, 28/01, 25/02, 11/03 and 08/04.

- The workshop is aimed at advanced students in conservatories and university Music departments as well as young graduates of both, but also existing chamber music ensembles.

- In order to make the ensembles as functional and homogeneous as possible, participants may be asked to take part in a short, ten-minute audition, playing repertoire of their choice. If such auditions are considered necessary, they will take place in the latter half of October.

- Each ensemble will be taught by both teachers in parallel, so as to highlight as many technical, expressive and aesthetic issues as possible, and to make it possible for performers to receive individual hands-on feedback. The repertoire is chosen by the teachers, taking into account both the wishes and abilities of the students.

- For more information or application forms, interested musicians can contact Titos Gouvelis by telephone on 2107257601 or by email at tgouvelis@koa.gr.

The deadline for applications is 14/10/2022. The participation fee is 280 Euros per person for the whole seminar.