END OF THE YEAR MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
It has been another very active and successful year for the
Pharos Arts Foundation with many exceptional concerts, our ongoing Cyprus
Artists Series, the 11th Pharos International Chamber Music Festival, our eighth
consecutive Brazilian Culture Month and the 3rd International Contemporary Music
Festival, as well as our recently established Jazz Series. In 2011, the Pharos
Centre for Contemporary Art also offered arts residencies to four artists from
Korea/US, UK, and Armenia.
Among the many highlights this year were piano recitals with prodigy young
pianist Benjamin Grosvenor – who went on to play at the first night of the Proms
in London, Phillip Cassard, Hayk Melikian and Javier Perianes. As part of the
Cyprus Artist Series we hosted the inaugural concert of the Cyprus Piano Trio
and a guitar recital with the highly talented Timotheos Stylianides. The Pharos
Chamber Music Festival presented a whole week of exceptional music-making in
Kouklia, Paphos, with thirteen wonderful artists from all over the world,
including the internationally renowned flautist Emmanuel Pahud and Japanese
violinist Daishin Kashimoto, Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. The
Festival has become recognized throughout Europe for its quality, intimacy and
unique setting. Our Contemporary Music Festival in September saw the world
premieres of seventeen works by gifted contemporary ensembles, live podcasts,
workshops for young Cypriot composers and very favorable reviews in the
international media. Our Jazz Series in The Shoe Factory hosted the Charis
Ioannou Jazz Trio, the Bruce Barth Trio and, recently, the outstanding Tigran
Hamasyan Trio. This year, the Brazilian Culture Month also included a jazz
concert with Angelita Jimenez and a very popular Brazilian Film Festival.
The majority of Pharos concerts have been accompanied by a parallel programme of
educational concerts for students, where we are working intensively to create a
new generation that appreciates serious music. Particularly memorable were the
morning concerts for young students in The Shoe Factory during the Xenakis – In
Memoriam International Conference, organized in collaboration with the European
University Cyprus. Cellist Rohan de Saram, singer Spyros Sakkas and
percussionist Marios Nicolaou shared their performance insights and
collaborations with Xenakis, and offered young Cypriot students a unique insight
into one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
The Pharos Arts Foundation continues to be a leading centre of excellence in the
arts in Cyprus and offers audiences unique musical experiences as well as
contributing to the important process of bringing up younger generations of
Cypriots for which the appreciation of music will become an important part of
their daily lives. The Shoe Factory has established itself as a very significant
and intimate venue in the heart of Nicosia with a superb acoustic. It has
brought thousands of people into a derelict and neglected neighborhood on the
green line in a divided city and has shown how cultural initiatives can
revitalize dead spaces and introduce beautiful experiences into people’s lives.
In these difficult and dangerous times the cultivations of the arts in our lives
is more crucial then ever. Indeed, I believe the arts and culture are the very
basis of our humanity. The nurturing of aesthetic experience is at the core of
our evolution as human beings. The human animal, unless it is also able to
create deep bonds – a reverence for the worlds above and below it as well as
other kingdoms, will be destined for cruelty, madness and perhaps eventual
extinction. The highest expressions of the human soul come to us through the
arts and the creative spirit. We neglect them at our peril.
The Pharos Arts Foundation seeks to provide a refuge and a platform for the arts
that is accessible to all those who wish to participate. I hope that The Shoe
Factory and The Olive Grove will remain and flourish as safe havens for the
arts. I would like to express my deep appreciation and thanks to all our
supporters and sponsors who have contributed to making our 2011 programme a
reality; to the artistic directors of the Chamber Music Festival, Levon
Chilingirian and Alex Chaushian; Evis Sammoutis the artistic director of the
Contemporary Music Festival; to all the great artists we have been privileged to
have throughout the year; to Yvonne Georgiadou and everyone at Pharos, and our
volunteers for their hard work and faith in what we are all trying to achieve
together.
We have already sketched out an ambitious and very exciting programme for 2012.
This time of the year is a time of birth, joy and giving in our culture. We hope
that you have been enriched by what Pharos has offered this year and that you
will renew your support and give generously to Pharos in the coming year.
Finally may I wish you all a beautiful, joyful and creative year ahead.
Garo Keheyan
Founder & President
Pharos Arts Foundation