Diversity at Thessaloniki Concert Hall
The agenda at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall in 2003 promises to be a diverse one with opera, jazz, chamber music, classical ballet, and Greek music all included. Proceedings at this splendid venue with a terrific view of the Thermaic Gulf begin on Sunday with a special morning concert of Sergei Prokofiev’s «Peter and the Wolf.» The musical fable’s performance, to be narrated by Alexis Kostalas, accompanied by the Thessaloniki State Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra, will be repeated the following two days, twice daily. Vladimir Symeonidis will conduct all five concerts. Sunday morning events will continue on January 16 with a performance by the Volos Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Symeon Cogan and pianist Vassilis Varvaressos as the soloist. Also on a Sunday morning, the Patras Orchestra, led by violin soloist Simos Papanas, will perform on May 4. On January 25 and 26, just days after appearing at the Athens Concert Hall, the internationally renowned dancer Vladimir Malakhov will perform choreographies by acclaimed artists such as Renato Zanella, William Forsyth, George Balanchine and Gerald Arpino. On January 28, the Britten Sinfonia, an all-star ensemble whose artistic agenda is committed to broadening the music traditionally associated with orchestras, will perform a concert titled «Between Jazz and Classic.» The month of February will be greeted by the New Hellenic Quartet on the 4th. Next will be the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra on February 9 with Ingo Metzmacher at the podium and soloist Giorgos Lazaridis. A series titled Mediterranean Musical Traditions will include performances by the Arabic Music Institute Orchestra of Cairo and Lebanon’s Advanced Music Academy Orchestra, both on February 15. The venue’s first International Piano Festival, between February 22 and March 2, will feature various established local and foreign musicians, beginning with Nelson Freire on day one. Two local pianists, Alexia Mouza and Constantinos Valianatos are scheduled for February 23, Rudolph Buchbinder for February 24, Bruno Leonardo Gelber for February 26, and Elizabeth Leonskaya for March 1. The series ends the following night with Yiannis Vakarelis.
