AXA: One Piano, Six Hands
The festival’s musical journey begins on 4/8 with the unique piano triet AXA: One Piano, Six Hands. Three pianists on one piano, six hands that explore the limits «of the enigmatic box with the long strings», as the composer Alfred Schnittke once described the piano. The German Anne Salié, the Greek Xenia Kourkoumeli and the Ukrainian Alina Pronina had each one a remarkable career with significant studies and awards, before they form the piano triet “Some handsome hands” in Germany in 2004, which has been recently renamed to «AXA: One Piano, Six Hands». The ensemble has given concerts around the world and has won major awards in related international events. The three pianists combine classical and contemporary music, providing the audience with an original experience for the eyes and the ears.
Anne Salié (Germany), piano
Xenia Kourkoumeli (Greece), piano
Alina Pronina (Ukraine), piano
Six hands on one piano
This unique piano triet unites on a single piano three pianists, who traverse with great esprit and verve the musical literature across all boundaries. The hard work and dedication required for this constellation has already resulted in the award of the First Prize at the 5th International Piano Competition for Piano Playing for Several Hands in Marktoberdorf, Germany and a Scholarship from the Doms Foundation in Basel.
Since its inception in 2004 the ensemble has given numerous concerts in Germany and abroad, including performances in Dubai and Switzerland and live Radio broadcasts by Deutschlandradio Kultur and by the Bayerische Rundfunk covering their appearance at the KlassiXmiX Sommerparty 2007.
The ensemble has already commissioned several works by Yannis Antonopoulos, Thomas Herrmann, Dmitri Pavlov, Steffen Schellhase and Manfred Schmitz.
Thirty female fingers on one piano
The piano triet AXA: One Piano, Six Hands will present at Megaro Gyzi a program of works for six hands on one piano. Among others, they will perform the Swan of Saint-Saëns, the Introduction to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”, but also Rachmaninov, Brahms, Schmitz, Baynov, Khachaturian, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cornick, Slonimski, as well as the work “Rag me baby one more time” (medley of Scott Joplin) written especially for the ensemble by Yannis Antonopoulos.
