Solo Piano for One and Encore for Four

Piano Recital

Monday, Feb 3 @7:30 pm

Past Event

A piano recital featuring Ioannis Potamousis with guest pianists: Elizabeth Han, Matthew Quayle, and Christos Plachouras, performing works by Beethoven, Koumendakis, Liszt, and Wilberg.

A piano recital featuring the monumental Appassionata by Beethoven, a selection of the Imaginary Préludes by Debussy, the UAE Premiere of the ethereal and eclectic The Herbs from Mesogeios Erimos by Greek composer Goerge Koumendakis, the virtuosic Spanish Rhapsody by Liszt and Wilberg’s dazzling Fantasy On Themes on Bizet’s Carmen for four pianists and two pianos.

Solo piano: Ioannis Potamousis

Guests pianists: Elizabeth Han, Matthew Quayle and Christos Plachouras

Biography

Ioannis Potamousis, described by the Pasatiempo as “New Colossus of the keys”, is internationally acclaimed as a charismatic and passionate performer, known for his captivating artistry and introspective, poetic expression. “…Ioannis Potamousis impressed the audience with his powerful and charming performance as well as his ability to create a dialogue with the orchestra,” wrote the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger of his performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. “Great brilliance…unique atmosphere” said the Cincinnati Post. The Gulf News wrote: “…It was worth just to listen to Potamousis play Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody. As we watched the pianist lose himself, we too became mesmerized by the music which took our breath away….”, “…anyone should watch Potamousis in action-he is thunderous one moment, comedic the next, then delicate as air.

Potamousis’ performances have taken him to important international venues in Europe and the Middle East as well as across North America. He has played at the Athens Concert Hall, the international summer festival and, on his recent Middle Eastern tour, to concert halls in Palestine, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The Dubai appearance included collaboration with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Dubai.

In New York, he has played in the Trinity Church Concert Series, the Mannes festival and at Steinway Hall, the Harvard Club and the Metropolitan Club. He has performed concertos with New York’s New Amsterdam Symphony, the Collegium Musicum of Cologne, the Summit (New Jersey) Symphony, the Athens State Orchestra, the New Jersey City Symphony Orchestra and the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra.

Ioannis Potamousis is a prizewinner of several international piano contests, including the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati (Silver Medal), the International Piano Competition in Santa Fe, New Mexico (First prize) as well as the Beethoven Sonata Competition in Memphis. He holds degrees from Musikhochschule Cologne, New York’s Mannes College of Music and Rutgers University, where he received a Doctorate of Musical Arts. Most recently, Ioannis completed successfully a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Nottingham University. Currently, he is the Head of Keyboard Studies at Brighton College Abu Dhabi as well as the co-founder of “Pollen-Spreading the seeds of music”.