Petite and Grande - Piano Recital with Ioannis Potamousis

NYUAD Music Recitals Series

Monday, Oct 26 @ 7:30 pm

Past Event

The New Colossus of the Keys, a piano recital presented by Ioannis Potamousis.

Ioannis Potamousis, described by the Pasatiempo as “New Colossus of the Keys”, is internationally acclaimed as a charismatic and passionate performer. He is known for his captivating artistry and introspective, poetic expression.

view the archive of the performance below

“…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.

The program features two milestones of the piano repertoire from the impressionism and romantic musical era: Debussy’s 12 preludes and Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante. In the preludes Debussy’s explores the 88 piano keys in sophisticated ways that involve dense and unique harmonies, arpeggios, pedaling and exquisite figuration. The “Dante Sonata” by Liszt shows the composer’s ingenuity to combine pianistic power and programmatic music. Here, Liszt depicts Dante Alighieri’s imaginative vision of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. These two contrasting compositions offer to the audience a musical journey from the colors and symbolism of the French Impressionism o the lavish passionate melodies of the romantic period.

The program for the evening covers:

C. Debussy: 12 Preludes Book 1 (Duration 40 Minutes)

I. (…Danseuses de Delphes) (Dancers of Delphi)
II. (…Voiles) (Sails)
III. (…Le Vent dans la plaine) (The Wind over the Plains)
IV. (…Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir) (Sounds and Perfumes Mingle in the Evening Air)
V. (…Les collines d’Anacapri) (The Hills of Anacapri)
VI. (…Des pas sur la niege)(Footprints in the Snow)
VII. (…Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest) (What the West Wind Saw)
VIII. (…La Fille aux cheveux de lin) (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
IX. (…La sérénade interrompue) (The Interrupted Serenade)
X. (…La Cathédrale engloutie) (The Sunken Cathedral)
XI. (…La Danse de Puck) (Puck’s Dance)
XII. (…Minstrels)

Short Break

Liszt: Après une lecture du Dante (15 Minutes)

“Great brilliance…unique atmosphere” said the Cincinnati Post.

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.”

Biography

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 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”.