'Pharos Chamber Music Festival' 05/04
30th April - 31st May 2004

This year’s Pharos Chamber Music Festival, dedicated to ‘The Spirit of Europe from Medieval to Contemporary’, promises to be the Trust’s most impressive to date, bringing dozens of world-renowned musicians from all over Europe to Cyprus for a month of intensive musical performance.

Throughout May, a series of concerts are being held at the PASYDY Auditorium, Lefkosia, and the Royal Manor House in Kouklia, Pafos, as part of events celebrating Cyprus’ accession to the E.U.
The Festival’s wide-ranging programme offers rare opportunities to hear European music through the ages, performed by distinguished chamber ensembles.

The Festival kicked off with the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet performing works by Haydn, Beethoven and Gerald Barry, one of Ireland's best established contemporary composers, a concert coinciding both with the Irish EU Presidency and Cyprus' accession.
The Eskar Piano Trio present a mixture of classics by Haydn and Brahms with a romantic trio by fellow Danish composer Emil Hartmann.
The London Sinfonietta, one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, will give a 'State of the Union' concert showcasing young contemporary composers from all over Europe. A new piece by Cypriot composer Yannis Kyriakides has been specially commissioned for this occasion.

Regarded as one of the leading ensembles of its kind, the baroque orchestra Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has toured all over Europe, the Middle East and Japan. They will bring us back to the Baroque with cantatas by Scarlatti and Bach and instrumental music by Vivaldi and Telemann.

Stepping back further in time audiences will have the opportunity to rediscover the 'Cyprus Codex'. This music was written in Cyprus during the reign of the last Lusignan King, which he gave to his daughter on her wedding day. She took the manuscript to Europe and it was lost until recently. The celebrated British vocal group The Sixteen will sing a selection from this as well as renaissance music from Spain and Portugal.

The Trio Belcanto Strings, led by Wolfgang Schroeder, has performed at major concert halls throughout Europe. Besides regular radio broadcasts, the Trio is a frequent guest at numerous renowned international music festivals. For these concerts, the Trio is joined by an international group of well-known chamber musicians.
The closing concerts of the Festival are scheduled to be performed by the Danel Quartet, one of the finest string quartets in Europe. Their programme includes three masterpieces of the quartet literature: Beethoven's opus 18 no 2, Schubert's magnificent 'Death and the Maiden' Quartet and the String Quartet by the early twentieth century French composer Maurice Ravel.