Cyprus Clarinet Festival (2017)

After Radovan Cavallin's performance of Oscar Navarro's Second Clarinet Concerto.

A little late on this one! It's been a busy summer. So, this summer I had the opportunity to conduct Oscar Navarro's Second Clarinet Concerto with Radovan Cavallin as the soloist at the first edition of the Cyprus Clarinet Festival ​in Agia Napa. Radovan had performed it previously with the Banda Sinfônica Municipal de Las Palmas with Navarro conducting....so I had some big shoes to fill.

We had a lot of concerts! The first night featured one of my favorites, Nuno Pinto performing with electronics with my great friend, George Georgiou. Hedwig and Angelos performed a concert featuring duos and clarinet with delayed step! It was an absolute blast to be exposed to repertoire I have never heard before and being inspired by so many great performances by wonderful clarinetists!  

It wasn't completely all work - we had a chance to sneak off to the beach in Agia Napa and swim in the Mediterranean Ocean! We also took advantage of the beautiful city and had REAL Cypriote food. We had a chance to see the Ancient Ruins and to have free wine tasting, by the one and only, Francis Guy! He also played an important role in the festival making sure things ran smoothly. We felt so welcome - so happy to be there!

The students had a lot of fun and that was the most important thing. This was the first clarinet festival they had in Cyprus. We were able to bring international performers to one spot and to provide the best information to them as possible. They had a chance to perform in the clarinet choir and perform in chamber ensembles for the final concert.