Eleni Ntafeka & Laertis Kokolanis

Sergei Prokofiev: 'Ρωμαίος και Ιουλιέτα' (arr. by Baich, Fletzberger)

Rimsky Korsakov: 'Σεχραζάντ' (arr. by Baich, Fletzberger) duoYugen CV

Eleni Dafekas graduated with a Diploma in Piano "Arista Pamdefdai" and 1st Prize from the Municipal Conservatory of Volos in the class of Dinos Mastrogiannis as well as with Advanced Theoretical Degrees in the class of Vsilis Foster. She continued her studies at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and soon after in the USA, with a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music in Piano Performance. At the same university he also taught as an assistant in the Department of Theory. He continued graduate studies for another two years at the Indiana University (Bloomington) Department of Music, where he was also selected and taught piano as an assistant professor. He has taken part in seminars with internationally renowned pianists, such as: Leon Fleisher, Yefim Bronfman, Richard Goode, Veda Kaplinsky, Julian Martin, Marc Durand, etc. Her awards include, 1st Prize in the San Francisco Conservatory Concerto Competition, 2nd Prize in the Pacific Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, with which she collaborated as a soloist. He has also appeared as a soloist with the State Orchestra of Athens and the ERT ensembles at the Megaro Musikis, among others, in premieres of works for panel and orchestra by Greek composers. He gave many solo and chamber music recitals in Greece, the USA, Germany and Spain, with the highlight being the Gala Concert at New York's Carnegie Hall in collaboration with the German violinist Guido Gärtner. In Greece he has taught piano and advanced theory at the American Community Schools of Athens, at the Hellenic American University and at the Music School of Pallini in Athens.

Laertis Kokolanis has been a member of the Athens State Orchestra since 2008. As of 2019, he is Principal Second in the Second Violins of the Orchestra, while previously he was a musician in the First Violins. He started his first violin lessons, at the age of 6, at the Argyrokastro music school in Albania. Coming to Athens, he continued his studies at the Conservatory of Contemporary and Classical Music, in the class of Nina Patrikidou, giving many concerts and recitals at a young age. Then, he enrolled at the Athens Conservatory (higher violin class), with teacher Tatsis Apostolidis, from whom he also learned chamber music for a number of years. In the last years of his studies, his teacher was the exarch of K.O.A. Ioannis Tzoumanis. He graduated in 2006, obtaining a Diploma in Violin with honors. He has also attended violin seminars with teachers Lydia Mortkovitch, Zakhar Brohn, Grigori Zhislin and Leonidas Kavakos. As a soloist he has collaborated with the State Orchestra of Athens and is a member of the contemporary music ensemble

The dynamic duo Yūgen, of Laertis Kokolanis and Eleni Dafeka, counting a decade of a joint musical career, is presenting an extremely exciting program. They are performing two of the most famous works ever written, the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev, inspired by the tragedy written by W. Shakespeare and the symphonic suite "Scheherazade" by Rimsky Korsakov inspired respectively by the collection of Middle Eastern fairy tales “A thousand and one nights".

The transcriptions of these works have been writen by Lidia Baich/Mattias Fletzberger, a world class violin/piano duo.

The concert also includes  Antonin Dvorak's “4 romantic pieces, op.75” for violin and piano, where the violin melodies interplay with the charming piano line, creating a dialogue that is left to the narrative of an almost amorous musical text.