17th Pharos International Festival of Contemporary Music

Pharos Arts Foundation returns to The Shoe Factory in October to present the 17th Pharos International Festival of Contemporary Music.

Founded in 2009 as Cyprus's first new music festival, the Pharos Contemporary Music Festival has consistently pushed the boundaries of creativity and innovation, introducing Cyprus's music-loving audiences to the ever-evolving world of contemporary music.

Bold, restless and uncompromising, the Pharos International Festival of Contemporary Music will once again bring audiences into direct contact with some of the most original expressions of musical creation today. The Festival will present four unique and highly varied concerts. With today's music as its constant focus, each concert programme will also highlight the connections, transformative trends and creative impulses that link contemporary creation with the wider history of music. The Festival will also present interdisciplinary activities, including lectures, workshops and educational activities for young people.

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗧 𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗔:

𝐅𝐫𝐢 𝟐 𝐎𝐜𝐭: 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐊𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐤
An immersive concert that transforms the soundscape and erases the boundaries between composition and performance, featuring world and Cyprus premieres of works by Stavros Choplaros, George Christofi, Kaija Saariaho and Barbara Monk Feldman, among others.

𝐁𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭: https://tinyurl.com/p6j6zw67

𝐖𝐞𝐝 𝟕 𝐎𝐜𝐭: 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨́𝐧 & 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐮 (bass clarinet)
The renowned BOOST Grupo de Percusión will make its Cyprus debut performing premieres by John Cage, Nebojša Jovan Živković and Mikel Kuehn, and will join forces with the distinguished clarinettist George Georgiou for the highlight of the evening - the world premiere of Andys Skordis’ new work. Entitled “Zourrrrr…” and commissioned by the Pharos Contemporary Music Festival, the work is inspired by the Ngunying ceremony, which the composer witnessed in Bangli, Bali. Within its powerful dramaturgical arc, the percussionists embody the temple musicians, while the clarinet gives voice to the witch, who gradually emerges, casting her spell and drawing them into a trance-like state. This is undoubtedly a concert where music, ritual and theatre converge in a haunting, otherworldly experience suspended between the earthly and the transcendental.

𝐁𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭: https://tinyurl.com/4aun9avw

𝐅𝐫𝐢 𝟗 𝐎𝐜𝐭: 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝟓𝟏 𝗗𝗨𝗢
Founded in 2016 and having won the First Prize at the John Cage Competition in Halberstadt, LAB51 (soprano Johanna Vargas and pianist Magdalena Cerezo) has gained an international reputation for its unique way of merging classical voice and piano with multimedia and performance art. For their Nicosia concert, LAB51 will present three iconic works by Bernhard Lang, Georges Aperghis and György Ligeti, promising a unique performance, in which hypnotic electronics, surreal physical theatre and breathtaking vocal acrobatics collide, moving exhilaratingly between the haunting, the absurd and the outrageously theatrical.

𝐁𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭: https://tinyurl.com/2zb2jbph

𝐖𝐞𝐝 𝟏𝟒 𝐎𝐜𝐭: 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒏- 𝐀 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐧 (soprano), 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐬 (clarinet) & 𝐉𝐚𝐧 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐥𝐳𝐞 (piano)
The Festival will conclude with Silence is Golden, a dramedy concert led by the internationally acclaimed soprano Sarah Maria Sun, alongside the clarinettist Julian Bliss and pianist Jan Philip Schulze. Together, the three musicians will offer an intoxicating interplay of seriousness and humour, ranging from Lied and cabaret song to opera, Broadway and contemporary music, in works by Schubert, Gershwin, Britten, Mahler, Weill, Aperghis and Bernstein. Stylish, irreverent and deliciously unpredictable, Silence is Golden inhabits a state of “inconsolable serenity”, where dark irony brushes against tenderness, classical refinement meets Broadway panache, and melancholy is never far from mischief.

𝐁𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭: https://tinyurl.com/45nrvatt