Piano Recital: A musical journey from Corfu to Yerevan

A musical journey that starts from the Ionian Islands Greece, with intermediate stops in Crete, the Dodecanese, Izmir, Ankara, and ends in Georgia. A musical bridge that passes through peoples with many contrasts and different cultural backgrounds, religions, and education. However, in a magical way, we ‘understand’ their music, it is familiar to us, and in this piano recital once again it will become apparent that music unites peoples and cultures. Traditional folk “marries” with western music in works by Constantinidis, Mitropoulos, Say, Babadjanian, Khatchaturian and others.

Programme:

Corfu

Je veux toujours t’ aimer (1912)

Napoleon Lambelet

Crete

Fête crétoise (1919)

Dimitris Mitropoulos

Dodecanese islands

Chants et dances du Dodecanese Book I (1943-1948)

Yiannis Constantinidis

Izmir

Sonatina: Allegro – Adagio, con moto – Prestissimo (1938)

Ahmad Adnan Saugun

Kütahya

Yerangi (1906)

Vardapet Komitas

Ankara

Black Earth (1997)

Fazil Say

Yerevan

Vagharshapat dance (1947)

Elegie in memory of Aram Khachaturian (1978)

Arno Babadjanian

Tbilisi

Masquerade Suite: Waltz – Nocturne – Mazurka – Romance – Galop (1941)

Aram Khachaturian

Dimitris Karydis Biography

Dimitris Karydis was born in Crete, Greece. Virtuosity, vitality, accuracy and excitement – indisputable elements in his playing – have assured him appearances with outstanding success in England, Germany, Italy, Japan and Greece.

Awards include the 1st prize in four national piano competitions and the prestigious ‘E. Mykoniou’ prize, awarded to him by the Academy of Athens for his artistic activity. He has also been awarded a special prize in the prestigious Grand Prix “Maria Callas”.

His piano duo ‘Antithesis (with pianist Petros Moschos) has been awarded top prizes in most major international duo competitions in the world. He is also a member of the Tetrachord Piano Ensemble, a piano quartet specialising in performing works for 8 hands.

Dimitris holds a soloist diploma from the Athens Conservatoire gaining the highest possible mark and ‘award of excellence’, a diploma of Advanced Studies with ‘Merit’ from the Royal Academy of Music, London, a master’s degree with ‘distinction’ from the City University, London, and a bachelor’s degree in Classics from the Athens University. He has worked intensively with Aliki Vatikioti, Frank Wibaut and James Gibb.

Dimitris is managing the Classical Music department at Morley and he is also the artistic director of the Heraklion Piano Festival in Greece.