VASSILIS VARVARESOS
piano
“Varvaresos not only has a natural yet finely honed technique, it springs as one with the wide scope of profound musicianship. Varvaresos engaged his audience with a performance that sizzled from start to finish.” – New York Concert Review
“….If Varvaresos suggested Van Cliburn reborn – given those colossally long, fleet fingers – his Liszt reminded us of the demonism we associate with Gyorgy Cziffra….”.
“……During this performance, as we were witnessing the maelstrom whirling of nimble hands and fleet fingers of Mr. Varvaresos and being mesmerized by the eddy of colourful emotions, we couldn’t help making mental comparisons to pianists like Ashkenazy, Von Cliburn, and even Horowitz. However, at the end of the recital we had to conclude that Varvaresos was eminently successful in cultivating his own impressive artistic persona….´. Peninsula Reviews October ‘15
Greek pianist Vassilis Varvaresos (1983, Tessaloníki) was in 1998 the youngest pianist winner ever (at age 14) of Young Concert Artists/New York, after which his recital débuts in New York and Washington were critically acclaimed. The Washington Post’s headline called Vassilis a “Young Master on the Rise.” This coveted first prize was followed by various international prizes after that; he is laureate of the 2014 Enescu Competition in Bucharest and the 2015 Monte Carlo Piano Masters.
Through the years, Vassilis performed in solo recitals in Tonhalle/Zürich, Megaron/Athens and Musikverein/Vienna and appeared several times in prestigious Salle Gaveau in Paris. He is invited at festivals like Chopin Festival/Nohant, Lisztomanias/Chateauroux, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Enescu Festival, Festival des Arcs, Festival du Classique au Vert in Paris, the SenLiszt Festival of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation and the Athens Festival.
Recent concerto appearances include a collaboration with Christoph Eschenbach, performing Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra; Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto at the Theatre of Herod Atticus in the Athens Epidaurus Festival; Rachmaninovs 3rd Pianoconcerto in Megaron/Thessaloniki and in Timisoara/Rumania; Both Mendelssohns Pianoconcerti with the Orchestre International de Genève with Lucie Leguay), Chopin’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de Normandie, Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto with the Freiburg Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s 4th and 5th Piano Concerti with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Bilkent Symphony, Prokofiev’s 4th Piano Concerto with the Saint Petersburg Chamber Orchestra and Ravels Concerto for the Left hand with the Bremerhaven Philharmonie.
He works with conductors like like Christoph Eschenbach, Alexander Shelley, Justus Frantz, Ovidiu Marinescu, Dionysis Grammenos, Lucie Leguay, Alexander Bloch and Vassilis Christopoulos.
Vassilis is being invited on a regular basis to play at festivals like the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Enescu Festival, the Festival des Arcs, the Piano Festival of Sainte-Ursanne, the Festival des Musicales du Golfe, the Festival des Correspondences des Arts in Braine/France the SelLiszt Festival of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation, the Bodrum Music Festival and the Istanbul Festival. Earlier in 2022 Vassilis appeared in Athens Megaron Hall for a benefit-concert for Ukraine together with violinist Leonidas Kavakos.
An avid chamber musician as well, he performed at the Bozar Theater in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Diligentia Theater of The Hague, and Gasteig in Munich. His regular chamber music partners include leading French musicians as Ophelie Gaillard, Michel Dalberto, Yan Levionnois, Henri Demarquette and Nicolas Dautricourt, as well as violinist Noé Inui and cellists Ella van Poucke and Anastasia Kobekina.
Since his American debut, aged 15, Vassilis has performed as recitalist at major venues in New York like Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and Morgan Library; in Washington he performed a.o. in Kennedy Center. March 2012 marked his first solo recital in Carnegie Hall after which he was invited by President Obama to perform at the White House. Vassilis Varvaresos represented Greece together with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has been named “Most Promising Young Greek Artist” by the Critics’ Association of Greece; he has been a regular soloist on all the major stages of his home country.
Vassilis holds a bachelor, masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky and Robert MacDonald.He is a graduate of the prestigious Diplôme d’ Artiste-Interprète degree at the Conservatoire Nationale et Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, France, under the tutelage of Michel Dalberto.
Vassilis Varvaresos’ latest solo album “V for Valse”, a celebration of the famous dance with works by Liszt, Scriabin, Schumann and Ravel has appeared in 2018 with Aparte Records in France, while he recorded with violinist Noé Inui , (Strauss and Schumann Sonatas, ‘Winterreise’ with baritone Dimitris Tiliakos, and CD’s with cellist Ophélie Gaillard, and cellist Ivan Karizna.
Besides performing, Vassilis Varvaresos, who is residing in Paris, has written music for ten films and several television series and wrote the book “Departure From the Functionality of Syntax”, which was awarded the Scholastic Distinction Award at the Juilliard School.
Vassilis holds a teaching position at the conservatories of Athens and Tessaloniki.
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