Margarita Escarpa

“one of the most musical players I know. Every phrase speaks of a natural feeling for musical truth supported by rigorous thought and impeccable scholarship. ... Escarpa`s tone is almost literally mouthwatering, one of those gorgeous sounds that remind you why you were attacted to this instrument” COLIN COOPER, “CLASSICAL GUITAR”, UK.

“one of the giants of our small world… Intense, penetrating, engrossing, fascinating, spectacular, pure joy”. MATANYA OPHEE, ON-LINE MAGAZINE OF EDITIONS ORPHÉE., US.

“ …lo que ocurrió no podemos expresarlo con palabras ... brillante, audaz, con el sonido tallado como un precioso diamante, escultora de relieves y pintora generosa de matices ... escuchando a Margarita Escarpa, o mejor, dedicando a su recital  la entereza de los sentidos, se alcanza al momento ese punto sublime y a la vez inmediato y perceptible existente sólo en la otra mitad del cielo...”.  PAOLO SANFILIPPO, GUITART (Italia).

“ … “finely wrought emotion, beautiful sound, and flawless technique …  apparent ease and great panache. …” SCOTT CMIEL ,  SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE (US)

“ …“interpretación antológica nutrida por ese sonido cristalino y redondo, impulsado por su enorme sensibilidad, un gusto refinado y un permanente control técnico, que anula cualquier tensión entre la intérprete y la dificultad trascendente de estas músicas.”  JAVIER SUAREZ-PAJARES, DIVERDI.COM (España)

Elena Papandreou

Elena Papandreou was born in Athens on 7 March 1966. She studied the guitar with Evangelos Boudounis (with whom she received her diploma in 1985 from the National Conservatory with the highest mark) and with Oscar Ghiglia. She also studied with Gordon Crosskey at the Royal Northern College of Music, England, on a British Council scholarship, obtaining the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Musical Performance (1986). She played in master classes of Alirio Diaz, Julian Bream, Leo Brouwer and Ruggero Chiesa.
She has won the First Prize in three International Competitions, “Maria Callas” (Greece), “Gargnano” (Italy), “Alessandria” (Italy) and the Second Prize in the “Guitar Foundation of America” Competition. In the latter she was also awarded the “NAXOS” Prize, which gave her the opportunity to record two personal CDs with this company. In the past she had released five other records while now she collaborates with the Swedish BIS where she recorded two CDs (music by Nikita Koshkin and by Roland Dyens). In 1992 she was honoured by the Academy of Athens with the “Spyros Motsenigos” Prize - a most important prize that is awarded to one outstanding performer every two years.
Elena Papandreou has performed in most European countries, as well as in the U.S.A., Canada, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Japan. Within the “Rising Stars” program of the “European Concert Hall Organisation”, she gave concerts in some of the most prestigious halls in Europe, the Vienna Musikverein, the Koelner Philharmonie, the Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Athens Concert Hall. She has also played in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow and the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London. In 1998 she gave her debut in Carnegie Hall in New York.
She has collaborated with outstanding musicians, the guitarists Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Diaz, Roland Dyens, Nikita Koshkin, Evangelos Boudounis, the violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Gerardo Ribeiro, the cellist Leonid Gorokhov, the singers Vasso Papantoniou and Herbert Lippert and the flutist Stella Gadedi. Elena Papandreou has played as a soloist with the State Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki, the Camerata Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the Orchestra of Patras, the Orchestra of Alessandria, Italy, the Istanbul Chamber Orchestra, the Bucharest Philharmonic and the ESMDM orchestra in Monterrey Mexico. Performances of hers were recorded by the Greek Television and Radio, Radio France, Deutsche Welle and the Turkish Television.
Elena Papandreou is a professor in the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki and teaches in the summer course of Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano, Italy together with Oscar Ghiglia.
Composers who have dedicated their works to her are Nikita Koshkin (among others, a concerto for guitar and orchestra), Roland Dyens, Nikos Mamangakis (among others, a concerto for guitar and orchestra), Evangelos Boudounis, Giorgos Koumendakis and Dimitris Nicolau.
For her interpretations she has received laudatory comments from significant people of the music world and enthusiastic reviews from the Press in Greece and abroad. Leo Brouwer said about her: “If you want to hear music of the highest level of interpretation with poetical perfection you must hear Elena Papandreou.” The Washington Post called her “a poet of the guitar” and the Greek newspaper “Ta Nea” wrote: “Now we see Elena Papandreou as one of the greatest interpreters [...] the critic becomes silent … when the Music begins.”

Andrzej Heimowski

Andrzej Heimowski is one of the most interesting artistic personalities of the young generation of Polish guitarists. In 2002 he graduated with distinction from Music High School in Gdansk, in the guitar class of Jerzy Wilinski. In the academic year of 2005/2006 he perfected his guitar skills as part of the European student exchange programme Erasmus in the Conservatory of Music in Granada under the guidance of Carmel Martinez. In 2007 he graduated magna cum laude from Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw under Marcin Zalewski. At present he continues his postgraduate studies at the Guitar Academy of Pordenone under the guidance of Paolo Pegoraro and at the Conservatory of Music in Udine under Stefano Viola in Italy where he also takes part in masterclasses with other eminent guitarists such as Carlo Marchione, Pavel Steidl, Oscar Ghiglia, Stefano Grondona and Pablo Marquez.
Many times he has been awarded artistic scholarships of the Ministry of Culture for young artists and in 2005 he was a laureate of „Young Poland” – a scholarship programme of the Minister of Culture. In 2007 he won a scholarship of Crescendum Est-Polonia Foundation to study abroad.

He has participated in international masterclasses conducted by the most distinguished professors such as: Igor Rekhin (Russia), Rupert Gehrman (Germany), Luis Orlandini (Chile), Pavel Steidl (Czech Republic), Marco Tamayo (Cuba), Oscar Ghiglia, Carlo Marchione, Stefano Grondona, Paolo Pegoraro, Stefano Viola (Italy), Joaquin Clerch (Cuba), Zoran Dukic (Croatia), Hubert Käppel (Germany), Vladimir Mikulka (France), Alvaro Pierri (Uruguay), Dale Kavanagh (Canada) and Thomas Offermann (Germany).

He performs as a chamber musician, as well as a soloist in recitals and in concerts with orchestras both in Poland and abroad, in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Monaco, Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, USA and South America.

Andrzej Heimowski has taken part in numerous music festivals, among other things Wexford Opera Festival (Ireland), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Italy), the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Festival (Italy), International Festival „Friuli Venezia Giulia” in Pordenone (Italy), „Cantiere Internazionale d”Arte” in Montepulciano (Italy), the Niccolò Paganini International Guitar Festival in Parma (Italy), „Musae Percorsi Culturali in Provincia” (Italy), „Semanas Musicales” (Chile).

He has also performed with Orchestre de Chambre in Nice, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, Cracow Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic - Sopot headed by Wojciech Rajski, Orchestra dell”Accademia Musicale Naonis, Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra.

Despite his young age Andrzej Heimowski has appeared in concerts alongside such outstanding artists as Mischa Maisky, Sergio Tiempo, Manuel Barrueco, Zoran Dukic, Marcin Dylla, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, The Ensenble Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, Dorothee Oberlinger and Adriano Del Sal.

He has been awarded numerous prizes and honorable mentions in international guitar competitions including 1st Prize at the International Guitar Festival in Gdansk (1999), 1st Prize in Gevelsberg in Germany (2003), Grand Prix, 1st Prize and the Special Prize for the best interpretation of a work of a Polish composer in Gdansk (2003), Special Prize in the Bronisław Huberman Austrian Music Competition in Warsaw (2003 and 2004), 2nd Prize in Newcastle, Australia (in a duo with an oboist Joanna Zmijewska, 2004), 1st Prize in the International Guitar Festival in Bath, Great Britain (2004), 1st Prize and the Winner”s Cup in the Thirteenth Giulio Rospigliosi Guitar Competition in Italy (2007), 1st Prize in the Fifth European Guitar Competition - „Città di Gorizia – Premio Enrico Mercatali” in Italy (2008), 3rd Prize in Sernancelhe in Portugal (2008).

He makes archive recordings for the Polish Radio and Television as well as abroad.

Augusto Pacheco

Pacheco began his musical studies in guitar at the Academy of Music of Vilar do Paraíso (Gaia – Portugal). After concluding the Complementary Course of music at this Academy, he went to the Superiority School of Arts and Spectacle of Oporto (Portugal), where he completed his degree course with Professor José Pina.
He studied in Paris, at the National Conservatory in the d’Aubervilliers Region, where he obtained a Premier Prix with Professor Alberto Ponce. Pacheco also studied at the École Normale de Musique of Paris with the same professor.
Under Professor Paulo Vaz de Carvalho and Maestro José Luís Borges Coelho’s direction, Pacheco concluded his Master in Performance at the University of Aveiro, being his dissertation “Guitar Works of Fernando Lopes-Graça”.
He later worked as a member of an Ancient Chamber music group in the Municipal Conservatory Claude Debussy with the Professor Ilton Wjunisky, participating in the presentation of the opera Dido and Eneias of H. Purcell.
He attended masterclasses led by the great Robert Brightmore, Leo Brouwer, Abel Carlevaro, Jozef Zsapka, Betho Davezac, David Russel.
He performed several solo recitals and duos (with Flute and Violin) in Portugal, France and Russia. He performed in the VII International Guitar Festival of Aveiro, in the International Festival of Gaia and in the Oporto 2001 – the European Capital of Culture at the time – where he participated in a young persons ensemble, the Opera Brundibar of Hans Krasa. He played the opening concert for the 5th Guitar Contest of S. João da Madeira where he was also a jury member and later led a Masterclass. He also appeared at the XVI Guitar Festival of Santo Tirso.
Pacheco played as invited soloist with the Orchestra of Madeira, with the National Orchestra of Oporto, with the Orchestra Esproarte, and with the Russian “Silver Strings” ensemble.
He won the 2nd prize in the International Guitar Contest of Tomar (there was no first place winner) and the 3rd prize in the International Guitar Contest of Sernancelhe.
He has currently been working in the duet “Duo Pourquoi Pas” with the flautist Raquel Lima. The duo have recently performed in the International guitar contest of Mauro Giulliani in Bari – Italy, where they reached the semi-final. Recently, they released their first CD, “Pourquoi Pas”.
Pacheco also works with the violinist Gaspar Santos in the Duo Soledade.
Composers like Ângela Lopes, Eduardo Patriarca and Fábio Gorodski have dedicated some of their pieces to him.
He founded and conducts the Guitars Orchestra of the Academy of Music of Vilar do Paraíso. With this orchestra he participated in the European Festival of Music for Young Musicians of Neerpelt, in Belgium, where his ensemble received 1st Prize Cum Laude. The orchestra also participated in the first Guitar Orchestra Contest – the Gofi Contest - in Bad Neuheim-Frankfurt where they once again won 1st Prize. Pacheco took his orchestra on tour through St. Petersburg and other nearby cities, where they performed many concerts. They participated in the celebration of the 25th of April by performing the final concert in the city of Paris, as well as in the 3.Euro Jundenmusik Festival in Baden-Wurttemberg. The Orchestra has already recorded three CDs, entitled “Cordas Soltas”, “Comntrastes“ and “Plaisir“.
He also conducted the Orchestra of Plectrum of Oporto in the 2002/2003 season.
At present, Pacheco is a teacher in the Academy of Music of Vilar do Paraíso and in the Institute Jean Piaget - Viseu.

Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras

The Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras (OFB) gave its first concert on the 15th December 1997, conducted by its first artistic director Fernando Eldoro. OFB was founded under a governmental program to create regional orchestras by several institutions and municipalities of the Beiras region of Portugal, associates of the Beiras Musical Association (BMA) that has the custody of the orchestra.

Since 1999, the FBO is artistically directed by António Vassalo Lourenço and, at the present time, it has 23 string musicians of several nationalities and with a young age average. The FBO aims to promote and develop the musical culture, through caption actions, training and loyalty of publics and supporting the professionalization of training of young musicians, democratizing and decentralizing the cultural offer, with many concerts and constant pedagogical activities (childhood and juvenile pedagogical programs, vocal, instrumental and conducting international courses, etc.). Under these principles, the FBO presents, since 2006, opera productions of different nature (infantile, Portuguese, repertoire).

From the FBO activity we can highlight the participations at the main Musical Festivals in Portugal (Algarve, Aveiro, Coimbra, Estoril, Évora, Gaia, Guimarães, Leiria, Póvoa de Varzim, Musical Party of the Centro Cultural of Belém) and abroad (Guyenne Festival, France, in 1998, Mérida Festival, Spain, in 2004, and Ferrol International Piano Contest, Spain, as the resident orchestra, in 2007), or important cooperation and co-productions with other artistic institutions. These are the cases of shows or concerts as the one presented at the Lisbon Coliseum (with the Cirque du Soleil company, in 2000); the performance of Bernardo Sassetti’s music for the movie “Maria do Mar”, from Leitão de Barros, since 2001; the presentation of the children’s opera “A Floresta”, from Eurico Carrapatoso, co-producted with the São Carlos National Theatre, São Luís Theatre, Aveirense Theatre and Viriato Theatre, in 2004 and again in 2008; the collaborations with the National Ballet Company to produce the “Midsummer Night's Dream”, directed by Heinz Spoerli, in 2004 and the “Swan Lake”, by Piotr Tchaikowsky, both conducted by James Tuggle.

Since its foundation, FBO has been regularly conducted by some foreign conductors and by the most well-known conductors of Portugal, and has been working with famous national and foreign musicians, with a special emphasis to the violinists Régis Pasquier, Valentin Stefanov and Wojciech Garbowski, the cellists Irene Lima, Paulo Gaio Lima, Teresa Valente Pereira and Aliaksandr Znachonak, the flute players Patrick Gallois, Felix Renggli and Istavn Matuz, the oboists  Pedro Ribeiro,  Alex Klein and Jean Michel Garetti, the pianists Pedro Burmester, Jorge Moyano, António Rosado, Miguel Borges Coelho, Gabriela Canavilhas, Adriano Jordão, Anne Kaasa, Valery Starodubrovsky and Valerian Shiukaschvili, the guitar players Carlos Bonell, Alex Garrobé, Aliéksey Vianna, Jozef Zsapka, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho and Pedro Rodrigues, the saxophonist Henk van Twillert, or the singers Elsa Saque, Elisabete Matos, Isabel Alcobia, Susana Teixeira, Margarida Reis, Carlos Guilherme, Mário Alves, Rui Taveira, Luís Rodrigues, Jorge Vaz de Carvalho, Armando Possante, José Corvelo or José Carreras. This last famous tenor sang with the FBO in two concerts, in 2009, which will certainly be an important part of this orchestra history. At the same time, the artistic direction tries to give a chance to the youngest generation of Portuguese musicians (conductors, instrumentalists or singers).

The OFB repertoire begins in the 18th Century until the contemporary music, with an artistically concern of giving special attention to the Portuguese music, recovering musical heritage or performing the pieces of the most important Portuguese composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, debuting pieces and first modern auditions of pieces from the 18th and 19th century composers. From the FBO discography it should be referred the orchestrations on Schubert’s Lieder from João Pedro de Oliveira , the Mass for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra from João José Baldi and the 3rd and 4th Symphonies from António Victorino d’ Almeida (conducted by the composer) in 2009. It is given attention to other musical areas as soundtracks or musical theatre, on an eclectically effort to reach the public, working with artists of the Portuguese musical  panorama as Maria João, Mário Laginha, Bernardo Sassetti, Dulce Pontes, David Fonseca, Nuno Guerreiro, Mariza, Gilberto Gil, Carlos do Carmo, Alessandro Safina, Maria Amélia Canossa or Rui Reininho.

António Sérgio Ferreira (Maestro)

(CV. coming soon)