Chamber Music Festival - Minoa Palace Resort - Vassilis Varvaresos

Vassilis Varvaresos

During the 2020-2021 season, Vassilis Varvaresos collaborates with Christoph Eschenbach, performing Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra and is invited by the Athens Festival to play Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto at the theater of Herod Atticus. He is equally invited to the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Festival des Arcs, the Piano Festival of Sainte-Ursanne, the Festival des Correspondences des Arts in Braine, France, the Thessaloniki Piano Festival and the Fukoshima Chamber Music Festival. This season he is also invited to appear at such prestigious halls as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the Athens Megaron Hall, while he also records his fourth album devoted to Skalkottas' music with BIS, as well a disc devoted to Beethoven's cello and piano works with acclaimed cellist Ivan Karizna, for Mirare Records. In previous seasons, Mr. Varvaresos has been invited to play at the Enescu Festival, the Festival des Arcs, the Festival des Musicales du Golfe, the SelLiszt Festival of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Bodrum Music Festival and the Istanbul Festival among others. Recent concerto appearances include Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de Normandie, Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto with the Freiburg Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto with the Thessaloniki State Symphony, Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Bilkent Symphony, and Prokofiev's 4th Piano Concerto with the Saint Petersburg Chamber Orchestra. Previous seasons marked Mr. Varvaresos debut recitals at the Tonhalle of Zurich, the Musikverein of Vienna and Paris' Salle Gaveau. He is equally invited to give recitals and masterclasses in California, Cincinatti, Charleston and New York City Winner of the coveted First Prize in the 1998 YCA International Auditions at age 14, his recital debuts in New York and Washington were acclaimed. The Washington Post’s headline called Vassilis a “Young Master on the Rise"; Since his American debut, aged 15, Vassilis has performed in virtually all of the US. Major appearances include recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, New York's Morgan Library, Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and the Kennedy Center in Washington. Following his debut recital at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, Mr. Varvaresos was invited to perform at the White House for President Barrack Obama. Mr. Varvaresos represented Greece at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has been named “Most Promising Young Greek Artist” by the Critic's Association of Greece and has been a regular soloist in all the major stages of his home country. Vassilis Varvaresos is the laureate of both the 2014 edition George Enescu International Piano Competition, held in Bucarest in September 2014, as well as the Piano Masters Competition held in Monte Carlo in September 2015. An avid chamber musician as well, he has been invited to perform at the Bozar Theater in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Diligentia Theater of the Hague, and the Gasteig in Munich. His regular chamber music partners include the leading French musicians as Michel Dalberto, Henri Demarquette and Nicolas Dautricourt, as well as Noé Inui, Ella van Poucke, and Anastasia Kobekina. A versatile musician, Vassilis Varvaresos has written music for ten films and several television series and wrote the book “Departure From the Functionality of Syntax”, which was awarded the Scholastic Distinction Award at the Juilliard School. Mr. Varvaresos holds a bachelor, masters and Doctor or Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School. He is a recent graduate of the prestigious Diplôme d' Artiste-Interprète degree at the Conservatoire Nationale et Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, France, under the tutelage of Michel Dalberto. Vassilis Varvaresos' new album “V for Valse”, a celebration of the famous dance with works by Liszt, Scriabin, Schumann and Ravel has recently appeared with APARTE Records in France, while he has recorded with NAVIS Classics with violinist Noé Inui and barytone Dimitris Tiliakos.