If I had to choose between music, dance or photography, I would choose all three, for I am enchanted with music, thrilled by dance and redeemed by photography! Αν έπρεπε να διαλέξω ανάμεσα στη μουσική, το χορό και τη φωτογραφία, θα επέλεγα και τις τρεις τέχνες. Η μουσική με μαγεύει, ο χορός με ενθουσιάζει και η φωτογραφία με λυτρώνει!...
Mozart was a musical genius at a level the world had
never seen before. When he was 5, he was already touring Europe with his
father, appearing before kings and queens and amazing them with his musical
prowess.
Now, almost 250 years later, this child shows the same
promise, when at 4 years old he can already play at such a level as to arouse
envy from many an adult 10 times his age! What will the future hold for such
young talent, we don't know. But we imagine it must be a very bright one!
Δεν υπάρχει καμιά πληροφορία στο διαδίκτυο, ποιος είναι ο τεράχρονος ταλαντούχος πιανίστας. Ούτε το όνομά του αναφέρεται πουθενά.
Katerina Miná (soprano) is making a name for herself as one of the finest sopranos of her generation.
Originally a pianist and a music teacher, Katerina completed her BMus (Hons)
Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Music Performance (Opera) at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama. Her opera studies were sponsored by the Corporation
of London, the A.G. Leventis Foundation, and the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama. The Greek Cypriot soprano is a prize winner in two International singing
competitions, the ‘1st Concorso Vocale Internazionale di Musica Sacra’ and the
‘7th Julian Gayarre International Singing Competition’, as well as the winner
of the 2008 Madame Figaro Magazine Singer-of-the-Year Awards. Katerina is based
in London and continues her vocal studies with Janice Chapman.
Katerina most
recently sang Rossini’s Stabat Mater with conductor Lukas Karytinos, the roles
of Violetta La Traviata in Kuwait and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni in Bahrain, and
appeared at Megaron in Athens with international pianist Elena Mouzalas in a
series of concerts to celebrate Schumann’s and Chopin’s birthday anniversaries.
With the Kolobov Novaya Opera of Moscow she performed the role of Nedda I
Pagliacci. Katerina performed the role of Elle from Poulenc’s opera La Voix
Humaine within the Kypria International Music Festival, and appeared as
Fiordiligi Cosi Fan Tutte on a tour in the Far-East and Middle-East with
European Chamber Opera. Other operatic roles include Donna Elvira Don Giovanni
with Staatstheater Cottbus, Mimi La Bohème with British Youth Opera and
European Chamber Opera, Karolka Jenufa with English Touring Opera and Maria
West Side Story with Oxford Philomusica.
Concert
performances include Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony no.9 at
St. John’s Smith Square in London, Michael Tippett’s Negro Spirituals and David
Fanshawe’s African Sanctus in Bahrain and Thame, Pitta’s symphonic piece 1973
with the National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of ERT, Mendelssohn’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream with Stanley Hall Opera, Haydn’s Scena di Berenice with
the Georgisches Kammerorchester in Ingolstadt, A. Charalambou’s Requiem for
Heroes with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra; world premières of C. Stylianou’s
song cycles Of the Beautiful Kingdom for voice and piano, A. Sakali’s oratorio
Liturgy beneath the Acropolis with Oxford Philomusica, the orchestral songs of
Henry Duparc, oratorios of Mikis Theodorakis, and symphonic songs by composer
M. Christodoulides with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.
Με
έδρα το Λονδίνο, η κυπριακής καταγωγής υψίφωνος διαπρέπει εδώ και χρόνια στο
εξωτερικό. Απόφοιτος της Guildhall School of Music and Drama και άξια
καλλιτεχνική πρέσβης της πατρίδας της σε όλο τον κόσμο, η Κατερίνα Μηνά έχει
βραβευθεί στους διεθνείς διαγωνισμούς Εκκλησιαστικής Μουσικής (Ιταλία) και
«Julian Gayarre» (Ισπανία), ενώ το 2008 της απενεμήθη το βραβείο της
«Τραγουδίστριας της χρονιάς» από το γνωστό γαλλικό περιοδικό Madame Figaro. Το
ρεπερτόριό της περιλαμβάνει, μεταξύ άλλων, τους ρόλους της Βιολέτας από την
«Τραβιάτα» του Βέρντι, της Φιορντιλίτζι από την όπερα «Έτσι κάνουν όλες» του
Μότσαρτ και της Μιμί από τους «Μποέμ» του Πουτσίνι, χαρακτήρες που ερμήνευσε
πρόσφατα σε γνωστά λυρικά θέατρα του εξωτερικού, όπως άλλωστε και αυτόν της
Γυναίκας στη μονόπρακτη «Ανθρώπινη φωνή» του Πουλένκ. Ως κοντσερτίστα, η Κύπρια
σοπράνο έχει συμμετάσχει σε παρουσιάσεις έργων εκκλησιαστικής και συμφωνικής
μουσικής, αλλά και σύγχρονων συνθετών, εντός και εκτός κυπριακών συνόρων. Έχει
εμφανιστεί στη Βρετανία, τη Γερμανία, τη Φιλανδία, τη Γαλλία, την Ιαπωνία, την
Ταϊλάνδη, τα Ηνωμένα Αραβικά Εμιράτα και έχει λάβει μέρος σε γνωστά φεστιβάλ
(Roman River Festival της Βρετανίας, «Κύπρια», «Μανώλης Καλομοίρης», κ.ά.).
Επίσης η Κατερίνα Μηνά εκπροσώπησε την πατρίδα της στους επίσημους εορτασμούς
για την ένταξη της Κύπρου στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και την Ευρωζώνη παρουσιάζοντας
τα έργα του Χρήστου Πίττα «Ελένη» και «Ρίμες Αγάπης». Έχει πραγματοποιήσει
ηχογραφήσεις για το Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου και την Ε.Ρ.Τ. Συνεχίζει τις σπουδές
της στο Λονδίνο με τη σοπράνο Τζάνις Τσάπμαν, ενώ επιλέχθηκε από την Βρετανική
Όπερα Νέων να συμμετάσχει σε σεμινάριο τελειοποίησης με τον τενόρο, μαέστρο και
συνθέτη Χοσέ Κούρα. Η Κατερίνα Μηνά συνεργάζεται συχνά με την Έλενα Μουζάλα, με
την οποία έχουν δώσει συναυλίες από κοινού στο Παρίσι και το Μόναχο.
Discography
Chopin & Schumann - Hymn for Cyprus - Peace Comes as a Dream
Grimeborn
Opera Festival is opening very soon! I'd love to see you in the Festival's
Triple Bill on 31 August and 1 September , where I will perform Poulenc's opera
'La Voix Humaine'. Have a look at this press clipping I just received from
Camden New Journal!!!
A photo from
the opening of the Greek operetta “Vaftistikos”
Born: December 5,
1870 in Kamenice nad Lipou, Southern Bohemia
Died: July 18, 1949
in Skutec, Czech Republic
Biography
by
Zoran Minderovic
An eminent
Czech composer, Vitezslav Novák is known for his evocative music in which
innovative harmonies and memorable tone colors are used to express a wide range
of emotions, including inner turmoil, diffuse melancholy, and nostalgia, as
well as a mystical recognition of the awesome power of nature. Like many of his
compatriots, Novák incorporated elements of Czech folk music into his work;
however, the folk motifs are highly stylized, constituting a significant but
not dominant strand in the rich texture of his music.
Novák's
musical talent was discovered early by a sympathetic teacher who developed the
youth's skills in piano and composition. In 1889, Novák obtained a scholarship
to study law at Charles University in Prague, and he also enrolled at the
Prague Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Novák studied piano with Josef
Jiránek, counterpoint with Karel Stecker, and harmony with Karel Knittl. Of all
of his teachers. Knittl was the least sympathetic; in fact, Knittl was so
perturbed by Novák's inventive approach to harmony that he savagely criticized
his student, effectively undermining his self-confidence as a composer.
Fortunately, Stecker showed more intelligence and actually recommended Novák
for Dvorák's master class in 1891. Novák and Dvorák may have disagreed about
compositional technique, but Dvorák was known for his respect for every
student's artistic individuality. Novák's early work was composed in the
Romantic idiom, and he attracted the attention of Brahms, who recommended the
young Czech composer to his publisher, Simrock. In 1896, during a visit to
northern and eastern Moravia, Novák discovered the region's unusual and
somewhat exotic folk music; while folk music never influenced Novák's work
directly, this encounter prompted him to expand his musical language and
transcend the idiom of Romanticism. The effect is evident in his remarkable
Quintet for piano & strings, composed in 1896, in which Novák successfully
blends elements of his early style with a natural melodic spontaneity inspired
by folk music. In his popular symphonic poems, V Tatràch (In the Tatra
Mountains), composed in 1902, and the Slovak Suite, written the following year,
Novák created powerful musical representations of natural beauty. In fact, In
the Tatra Mountains, which captures the many facets of the majestic landscape
of the Tatras, has been favorably compared to the Alpine Symphony by Richard
Strauss. Detailed in its description of the many splendors of nature, Novák's
music also develops a few fundamental, archetypal images, such as the moonlit
night and water. A quiet pond in the South Bohemian Suite, a mountain stream in
the monumental tone poem for piano, Pan (1910), water becomes an overwhelming
and boundless force in the Storm, a dramatic cantata also completed in 1910.
Having succeeded Dvorák as professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory
in 1908, Novák dedicated his energies to teaching. In 1919, when his popularity
as a composer seemed to be waning, he started a master class at the
Conservatory, attracting many promising composers, including Alois Hába. While
Novák's works composed in the 1920s, including operas and ballets, were
regarded as less-successful than his earlier compositions, the symphonic works
written toward the end of his life are mature, thoughtful creations. These
compositions include the South Bohemian Suite (1937), De Profundis (1941), and
May Symphony (1943). The two last works expressed the composer's thoughts about
the destiny of his country in the midst of World War II. As scholars have
noted, while Novák's style is fundamentally melodic, he is also a master of
harmonic development and contrapuntal construction. His compositional skill is
exemplified by his extraordinary ability to create a towering structure, such
as Pan, on the basis of a brief motif. Source: AllMusic
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