LAHTI INTERNATIONAL ORGAN FESTIVAL

Opening Concert
of the Lahti International Organ Festival

Nikos Spanatis, countertenor

Eleni Keventsidou, organ

Tuesday 7th August 2018
Lahti, Finland

Program

Alessandro Grandi (1586-1630) "Cantabo Domino"

Arvo Pärt (1935 - ) "My Heart's in the Highlands"

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
"Erbarme dich, mein Gott" Matthäus-Passion

Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) "Priez pour paix"

Max Reger (1873 – 1916)
"Bitte um einen seligen Tod" Zwölf geistliche Lieder"

Max Reger (1873 – 1916)
Sonata in D minor Op.60, No.2. 1st movement:
Improvisation, Allegro con brio

Giorgos Koumendakis (1959 - ) "The Murderess"

Yannis Konstantinidis (1903 - 1984) Greek Danses Nos V and VIII

Yannis Konstantinidis (1903 - 1984) "Erinaki" (Little Irene)

Eleni Keventsidou, organ Eleni was born in Athens and started playing the piano at the age of 9 with Kate Trulli at the Athens National Conservatory. She graduated in 1995 with a unanimous First Prize. At that time Eleni was also studying Greek Literature (Linguistics) at the National Republic University of Athens. In 1998 Eleni was awarded a three- year scholarship by the “Friends of Music Society” in order to study the organ with Nicolas Kynaston in the Athens Concert Hall. Studying organ music with Nicolas Kynaston and David Titterington at the Royal Academy of Music Eleni graduated from the Postgraduate Performance Course in 2004 with Distinction and has also studied privately with Johannes Geffert, Head of Church Music Studies at the Cologne Hochschule. Eleni has performed as a soloist at the Athens Concert Hall, Bonn-Beuel, Dusseldorf, Himmerod Abbey (Germany), All Souls Langham Place, Ciutadella Cathedral (Menorca), Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Bath Abbey, Huddersfield Town Hall, Cambridge Festival, St. Dominic’s Priory, Temple de Foyer (Paris), Bristol Cathedral, York Minster, Reading Town Hall, Bergen Organ Festival. As a chamber music player Eleni has performed at St. Martin in the Fields, the Dutch Church London, the Evangelist Church of Katerini (Greece), the Athens Spring Organ Festival and the Athens Megaron with the Capella Istropolitana, the Athens Radio Orchestra and the Athens Camerata. In 2003 Eleni has been awarded a scholarship from the Alexander S.Onassis Scholarship Foundation. In 2004 she was awarded the ‘Margaret and Sydney Lovett Organ Prize’ and the ‘United Music Publishers Ensemble Prize’ (London-Royal Academy). In 2007 she was awarded the Artistic Director’s Prize at Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition in Kaliningrad, Russia. In 2005 Eleni participated in a joint recording project with the Royal Academy of Music and the Southwark and South London Organ Society, playing at the Royal Festival Hall. In February she participated in a CD recording of English Choral music with the Rugby School Choirs. Eleni has been Organist-in-Residence at Tonbridge School, Bilton Grange School and Bishops Stortford College. Currently she teaches piano at Kent College, East London Music Service and piano- organ at Rugby School. Eleni obtained her PhD in Organ Performance of Max Reger’s Variations Op. 73 on a full studentship at Christ Church University, Canterbury in 2016.