ORGAN RECITALS 2018

St Alphage, Burnt Oak

Nikos Spanatis, countertenor
Eleni keventsidou, organ

3rd November 2018
London

Program

Alessandro Grandi (1586 - 1630)
“Cantabo Domino”

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

J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
Pièce d’ Orgue BWV 572

Ludovico Viadana (1560-1627)
“Exaudi me Domine”

Pelham Humfrey (1647- 1674)
“A Hymn to God the Father”

Philipp Wolfrum (1854 - 1919)
Benedictus Op. 30 No 1

Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963)
"Priez pour paix”

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

Max Reger (1873 – 1916)
Präludium, Op. 65

Giorgos Koumentakis (1959 – )
"The Murderess"

Yiannis Karydas (1960 - )
Parthen H Romania, Traditional, arranged for organ by Yiannis Karydas

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

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

Mikis Theodorakis (1925 - )
"Zorbas” the famous syrtaki

Mikis Theodorakis (1925 - )
"Make your bed for two”

Review:
Lahti Organ International Organ Festival
August 2018

ESS, Jari Pitkänen | Finland

[…] Eleni Keventsidou is a very interesting musician. Her interpretation is really delicate and pure. The most significant parts of her program were Reger’s works. The series of twelve religious songs “Bitte um einen seligen Tod” was greatly performed with clear and various colours. […] In Reger’s work “Improvisation, Allegro con brio” Eleni Keventsidou discovered the composer’s typical spasm, as well as his most sensitive aspects, “constructing” a very impressive performance. […]

[…] Nikos Spanatis has a crystal countertenor voice, which he handles with flexibility, power and wide shades. For example, the song of the Scottish Poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands” by Arvo Pärt was an excellent example of using different sound colours and a high voice technique. […]

Eleni Keventsidou, organ recitalist, Organ & Piano teacher Rugby School & Kent College, Canterbury

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 Festival, Lahti 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, the Athens Camerata and the Athens State Orchestra. 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. She participated in a CD recording of English Choral music with the Rugby School Choirs. She has recently recorded her solo CD at Royal Hospital School, Ipswich and a CD for violin and organ music at Rugby School for Ravensbury Records. 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.

Nikos Spanatis, countertenor / Opera Singer / Musicologist PhD Candidate, Department of Music Studies, Ionian University

Nikos Spanatis has performed in great Concert Halls in Greece, in International Festivals and has appeared in European Countries in Art Projects, in recitals and in Chamber Music Concerts. He collaborates with renowned orchestra Brussels Virtuosi and their creator and famous flautist Marc Grauwels and Estonian Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta and has collaborated with Swedish Chamber Orchestra ‘Musica Vitae’, Estonian Baroque Ensemble ‘Floridante’ and all major Greek orchestras under the baton of Tiberiu Soare, George Petrou, Vassilis Christopoulos, Miltos Logiadis, etc. He was born in Frankfurt. Nikos Spanatis has performed the roles of: Pouh-Bah (“The Mikado” by Gilbert and Sullivan), Carpoforos and Messenger (“Erofili” by nikos Mamagkakis),  Sorceress (“Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell), Marcellien -Twin Brother (“Le martyre de Saint Sébastien” by Cl. Debussy) Nireno (“Giulio Cesare” by Haendel), Ascanio (“Ascanio in Alba” by W. A. Mozart - Opera Studio of Greek National Opera), Baba the Turk (“The Rake's Progress” by I. Stravinsky - Opera Studio of Greek National Opera), Oberon (“Midsummer Night's Dream” by B. Britten - Opera Studio of Greek National Opera). He has studied advanced music theory, trumpet and piano. He has studied singing with Aris Christofelis, Roza Poulimenou in the Department of Music Studies, Ionian University and soprano Mata Katsouli in Philippos Nakas Conservatory where he was awarded with a Diploma in Classical Solo Singing (1st Prize & first class honors). He has performed works of Greek composers such as Dimitris Maragopoulos and Nikos Mamagakis and has done recordings for the Greek Classical Radio - Third Program, for labels MDG and IDAIA, and of Dimitris Papadimitriou’s "Aesop's fables". He has collaborated and been sponsored by TV5MONDE francophone international channel and Tricolore News. Nikos Spanatis has received warm reviews from Greek and international Press, such as, "...his velvet, hedonically dark-colored voice enchantingly conversed with the flute of Marc Grauwels..." (The Journalists' Daily), "...Nikos Spanatis has a crystal countertenor voice, which he handles with flexibility, power and wide shades". (ESS,Finland), among others. He is a PhD Candidate in Ionian University Department of Music Studies and Artistic Director and Singing Teacher at National Conservatory, Ymittos. Musicologist PhD Candidate,  Department of Music Studies, Ionian University, Artistic Director and Singing Teacher at National Conservatory, Ymittos. (Official Website: http://www.nikosspanatis.com/en )