This year the Paxos Spring Festival took place in the heart of the summer. Accomplished young Greek musicians came on our island on the 23rd of June, studied hard 4 different very demanding programs and performed them for a full Loggos concert hall during the first week of July. On the 4th of July they gave a last performance in the Ionian Academy Hall in Corfu with impressive success. On the 28th of June 4 of the soloists, who founded the famous International Ensemble Modern Orchestra and Academy and act as lecturers and artistic directors for the festival - Roland Diry (winds), Rumi Ogawa (percussion), Ueli Wiget (piano) and Michael M. Kasper (strings) -, gave an impressive performance for their students and a large Paxos audience. The reason why this year’s festival started so late was the fact that the Greek musicians, participating in the workshop and festival, are also members of important orchestras in Athens and in other parts of the world. So from now on, fans of the festival should expect the 2010 performances to take place around the same dates. The four programs prepared on Paxos this summer will be performed in 4 different concerts in the Athens Megaron of Music during the winter season of 2009-2010. The coordination between the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Athens and the Megaron and Corfu and the Ionian University is accomplished by a Paxos enthousiast for many years, mrs Nada Geroulanos. The rehearsals organization for the Megaron is done by composer, Alexandros Mouzas. Responsible for the administration of the festival on Paxos is “Poseidon” secretary and director of the Paxos Festival Trust, Faye Lychnou. The pieces performed this summer were the following: LECTURER’S CONCERT: Bernd Alois ZIMMERMANN (1918-1970) Sonate, for cello solo (1960) Pierre BOULEZ (*1925) Incises for piano solo (1994/2001) Nikos SKALKOTTAS (1904-1949) Sonatina, for cello and piano (1949) Keiko HARADA (*1968) Labyrinth VI, for clarinet and percussion (1995) MASTERCLASS CONCERT I: Wolfgang RIHM (*1952) Ländler, for piano solo (1979) Yannis XENAKIS (1922-2001) Dhipli Zyia, for violin and cello (1952) Nikos SKALKOTTAS (1904-1949) 5 Greek Dances, for string quartet (1931-1936) York HÖLLER (*1944) Pas de trois, for viola, cello and double bass (1982/2003) Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) Suite from „L’Histoire du soldat“ (IV: Tango-Valse-Rag) (1918/19) Vassos NICOLAOU (*1971) Kimata, for six players (2003) MASTERCLASS CONCERT II: Joji YUASA (*1929) Projection, for string trio (2001) Dai FUJIKURA (*1977) Half-Remembered City, for piano duet (2002) Keiko HARADA (*1968) Moon Reed, for oboe and piano (2001) Toshio HOSOKAWA (*1955) Slow Dance, for six players (1996/2002) Misato MOCHIZUKI (*1969) Intermezzi I, for flute and piano (1998) MASTERCLASS CONCERT III: Alexander GOEHR (*1932) Since Brass, nor Stone… op.80, fantasia for strings and perc. (2008) Thomas ADÈS (*1971) Sonata da Caccia op.11, for oboe, horn and harpsichord (1993) Oliver KNUSSEN (*1952) Ophelia Dances, Book I, op.13, for nine instruments (1975/80) Isang YUN (1917-1995) Festlicher Tanz, for wind quintet (1988) Jonathan HARVEY (*1939) Tendril, for chamber ensemble (1987) MASTERCLASS CONCERT IV: Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) Sinfonietta op.1, for ten instruments (1932) Nikos SKALKOTTAS (1904-1949) Ten Sketches for String Quartet (1940) Philip CASHIAN (*1963) Dark Inventions, for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, cello (1992) Toshi ICHIYANAGI (*1933) Trio Interlink, for violin, piano and percussion (1990) Yannis XENAKIS (1922-2001) Plektó, for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, cello (1993) Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963) Der Dämon, concert suite for chamber orchestra (No. 2,3,7,8,9,13) (1922/23) The well known Dutch conductor, Kasper de Roo, conducted for the 3rd consecutive year the various ensembles during the 4 concerts both on Paxos and Corfu. Participants of the masterclasses this year were: Chryssi Dimitriou (flute), Marina Tantanozi (flute), Christina Pantelidou (oboe), Konstantinos Tzekos (clarinet), Spyros Mourikis (clarinet), Maria Koletou (bassoon), Emmanouil Ventouras (horn), Ai Motohashi-Sideri (piano), Apostolos Palios (piano), Theodoros Vazakas (percussion), Marios Nicolaou (percussion), George Panagiotidis (violin), Kostas Panagiotidis (violin), Panagiotis Tziotis (violin), Ali Başeğmezler (viola), Dimitris Travlos (cello), Antonis Pratsinakis (cello), Nikos Tsoukalas (double bass). The famous Greek clarinettist, Spyros Mourikis was originally invited to the masterclasses, however he had to cancel his participation due to an accident at home a few days before the festival started. Hopefully we will host him next year.