Turning the whole of Cyprus into a stage

The Piano Tour is an ongoing project taking classical music to the great outdoors. ELENI PHILIPPOU meets the man behind it who has played in some stunning locations

Imagine hiking up to Tzelefos Bridge or walking along Nicosia’s Green Line and encountering a live piano recital. The Piano Tour is taking concerts out of theatres and into the outdoors, taking talented local musicians and a piano to unconventional urban or natural locations to perform, and streaming it live on Facebook so even those who can’t make it can watch. This month a new location and a new pianist are joining the series as the tour prepares for another outdoors recital.

The inaugural concert was held at GSP stadium on the evening of the Cyprus Football Cup Final in 2019! Stavros Kyriakides, who founded the project and is the president of Avantgarde Cultural Foundation that organises it, took classical musicians and a large piano into a busy, bustling football stadium during what was probably the most anticipated match of the year.

“When we presented our idea to the stadium authorities and the Cyprus Football Federation,” Kyriakides said, “they thought we were joking. A grand piano at the cup final with two pianists playing classical music with four hands was unprecedented! In Greece, only days earlier, they had had to ban fans from attending their cup final due to fears of hooliganism and clashes between the fans of the two teams. In Cyprus, however, we delivered a whole different message! Not only can we attend a major footballing event but we can also convert the stadium into a concert hall, and this is exactly what we did.”

As the fans entered the stadium, banners and flags in hand, chanting their teams’ anthems, they were caught by surprise as pianists Leoni Hadjithoma and Borislav Alexandrov performed music by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Debussy and Brahms on a grand piano that dominated the stadium entrance area.

Since then The Piano Tours has continued to voyage around the island bringing classical music to all corners of the country. Performances have taken place at the Pedieos Linear Park, the rooftop of the Nicosia 360 building in the capital city at 135m, Choirokoitia Neolithic Settlement, the Green Line and the Medieval Tzelefos Bridge.

To be able to place a large piano in spots like Tzelefos Bridge and Choirokoitia, Kyriakides and the foundation have had to have permits from and cooperation of local authorities, municipalities, government departments and even Unesco. All of this ensures that the performances can take place safely for the musicians and the environment.

But why take the piano out of concert halls and into forests, archaeological sites and skyscrapers? “The spark for this specific project,” said Kyriakides, “is our quest for new ways to increase people’s interest in classical music. Unfortunately, over the past years, we have seen audience numbers in concert halls decreasing and the audience ageing. Young people seem to be turning their back on such events as a piano recital. We followed the saying about Mohammed and the mountain – If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.” Hence the link with Facebook, which means the concerts are taken to the social media platforms so engaging for younger audiences.

This will hopefully familiarise more people with the art of classical music so that the next time they hear about a pianist playing in a theatre somewhere, they’ll actually want to go. “We have turned the whole of Cyprus into a concert stage and we have placed a piano in places which seemed impossible at first”.

Of all of the recitals of the project so far there is one that stands out for Kyriakides – the recital on Nicosia’s 360 building, a one-off performance that Kyriakides said can never be repeated. “It was the first and last time we saw a grand piano at that height since we had the piano delivered with the large construction crane just before it was taken down. Having another piano on the rooftop of Nicosia’s tallest building is practically impossible!”

Usually, the locations of the performances are kept a secret and the project’s followers are surprised with a Facebook Live video on the day of the recital on Kyriakides’ account. The videos so far have circulated the web with increasing views each month. It’s caught the attention of international pianists and even Steinway & Sons, the world’s most reputable piano manufacturer, shared images of a piano at Choirokoitia on their social media pages.

The next Piano Tour concert will be held on Wednesday, September 15 at 6pm where pianist Manolis Neoftyou will perform a selection of well-known pieces from Greek and Spanish music at the ruins of the Ayios Mamas church at Ayios Sozomenos with its imposing arches just outside Nicosia. This too will be broadcast live on Facebook.

“It’s all local artists behind this amazing project,” said Kyriakides. “The Piano Tour is all about a piano, either solo or with another instrument or voice, performing from a unique location each time”.

The Piano Tour

Piano concert with Manolis Neofytou. A project by Avantgarde Cultural Foundation. September 15. Agios Mamas Church, Agios Sozomenos. Broadcast live on Facebook at www.facebook.com/svkyriakides. 6pm. Free