Axia International Festival 2012 – The Artists

Τα βιογραφικά σημειώματα όλων των μουσικών που θα συμμετάσχουν στο Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Αξία που θα διεξαχθεί στο Χαλκί της Νάξου, 10-12 Αυγούστου, όπως και το βιογραφικό σημείωμα του καλλιτεχνικού διευθυντή του Φεστιβάλ, Nigel Shore.

Nikos Karavias

Nikos Karavias grew up on Naxos, and started playing the guitar at the age of 8. He was a scholarship student at the Athens Conservatory for the last three years, studying classical guitar with Costas Cotsiolis. In June 2011 he was awarded his Classical Guitar Diploma with top marks.

He has given recitals in Greece and abroad for charity. The prestigious G. Likudis prize, which had not been given to a guitarist for 8 years, was awarded to him by the Athens Conservatory. Every year he participates in guitar festivals as a listener and as a soloist. He has taken master classes with Aniello Desiderio, Antal Pusztai , Marco Tamayo, Alfred Eickholt, Zoran Dukic, Joaquin Clerch and Odair Assad. He is currently studying at the Mozarteum University Salzburg under Eliot Fisk.

Anna Carewe

Inspired by her father, conductor John Carewe, the English cellist Anna Carewe has always been an avid supporter of New Music, commissioning her first work for solo cello at the age of fifteen and subsequently performing countless new solo and ensemble compositions with groups such as the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, the Ensemble “L’art pour l’art” (which explores the cutting edge of experimental music) or with duo partner Philip Mayers.
Projects with Thomas Hengelbrock, Bernhard Forck and Sergio Azzolini awakened Anna’s interest in historical performance practice and the Manon Quartet Berlin, of which she is a founding member, has performed on both modern and period instruments at festivals in Germany, Denmark, Austria (Innsbrucker Festwochen für Alte Musik ) and at the Tanglewood International Music Festival in the USA (where it was Quartet in Residence).
Artistic diversity being a very important aspect of her life, Anna also has a duo with vibraphone player Oli Bott. Their (partly improvised) repertoire ranges from Diego Ortiz (around 1550), Vivaldi and Bach to jazz standards by Miles Davis or Duke Ellington and compositions by Oli Bott. In the trio “Panama Hat Trick”, with singer-sister Mary and pianist Philip Mayers, she performs works by the greats of the Musical and Cabaret world of the 20th Century.
For many years she was principal cellist and a leading figure of the Ensemble Oriol Berlin. In 2007 she left the group to concentrate more on her own projects – especially the Sheridan Ensemble, with which she aims to combine all her musical interests.
Anna Carewe studied with Florence Hooton and David Strange at the Royal Academy of Music in London, from which she graduated at the age of 20, before going to Berlin, where she counts her teacher Wolfgang Boettcher at the Hochschule der Künste as one of her most important influences.

Philip Mayers

The Australian-born pianist Philip Mayers is not only a sought-after Lied accompanist, chamber musician, soloist, specialist for New Music and vocal coach but is also known as a conductor, composer and brilliant presenter, arranger and performer of Cabaret and light music.
In Berlin, he regularly performs with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Rundfunkchor Berlin, with both of whom he has also recorded for CD and radio. His long association with the Berliner Kammeroper has led to productions at venues and festivals such as Maerzmusik, the Schwetzingen Festival and the Konzerthaus and Hebbeltheater in Berlin under his musical direction. His own chamber opera “Trieste” was premiered in 1997 by the Berliner Kammeroper under his direction from the piano. He has also directed on several occasions at the Opera Festival in Schloss Rheinsberg.
Philip Mayers partners the English cabaret singer Mary Carewe in their programme “Serious Cabaret” and they have performed not only in Great Britain but also all over Europe, at venues such as the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Alicante Festival for Comtemporary Music or the Winter Music Festival in Riga. Joined by Mary’s sister, cellist Anna Carewe, the trio “Panama Hat Trick” performs a combination of classical, cabaret and musical theatre repertoire, presented with inimitable wit and charm by Philip at the piano.
Philip Mayers studied at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane with Max Golding, graduating with honours and subsequently completing a post-graduate course at the Conservatorium’s Opera School. Further studies led him to Philip Moll in Berlin and Zelma Bodzin in New York and he also took part in master classes with Dalton Baldwin and Geoffrey Parsons.

Nigel Shore

Nigel Shore is one of today’s most sought-after oboists internationally. After studying at the Royal Academy of Music (with Celia Nicklin, oboe and Hamish Milne, piano) and the University of London, he graduated with three 1st class honours diplomas in oboe, piano and musicology and was also awarded the coveted “Queen’s Commendation of Excellence” as best student of the year. He then moved to Berlin and spent two formative years studying with Hansjörg Schellenberger and four further years playing with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan und Claudio Abbado before becoming principal oboe at the Berlin Comic Opera. For 20 years, Nigel has also been principal oboe of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra, specialising in late Baroque and early Classical repertoire. During this time, he built his international solo career and concert engagements have taken him regularly to Japan, the Middle East, North, South and Central America, Russia and throughout Europe, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Gasteig in Munich, for concerts with many acclaimed artists such as Hartmut Haenchen, Jochen Kowalski, Paco de Lucia, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, Saulius Sondeckis, and Frank-Peter Zimmermann.
Some highlights of his varied solo career include the world premiere of the Oboe Concerto written for him by Roger Steptoe; Bach’s Concerto in A major for Oboe d’amore BWV 1055 in the composer’s church in Koethen under the direction of Peter Schreier; the concerto by Richard Strauss in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London for the opening concert of the Covent Garden Festival; a performance of the Doppio Concerto by Hans Werner Henze in the Montepulciano Festival in the presence of the composer; gala concerts in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, with concertos by Bach, Mozart and Strauss, which were broadcast on Russian television. Nigel Shore is also a regular soloist in the Konzerthaus Berlin, where he has played concertos by Bach,Telemann, Handel, Henze and Lutosławski.
Nigel Shore is a founding member of the Berlin Oboe Quartet, of KO5, the Wind Quintet of the Comic Opera Berlin and of Trianche, a Berlin-Los Angeles based wind trio. Nigel can be heard on the following recordings: Christmas Concertos: works by Bach, Handel and Telemann (Sony); Summer Music: Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, works by Villa-Lobos (BIS); Water Music: works by Handel and Telemann (Berlin Classics); J.S. Bach: Cantatas and Arias with Peter Schreier (Philips); ¡México!: Mexican songs with Rolando Villazón (DG); Night of Hunters with Tori Amos; and as solo English Horn on the CD and DVD of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with Paco de Lucia (Philips).

Hans Limburg

Groovy Brazilian Bossa Novas, graceful sambas and international standards, mixed with Brazilian jazz, form the repertoire of singer, guitarist and composer Hans Limburg. With his “extraordinary feeling for rhythmic and harmonic elegance and virtuosity” (press) he inspires every audience.
At the age of ten, Hans Limburg began to play the classical guitar. Through the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos, he got to know Brazilian music for the first time. He was strongly influenced by Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Baden Powell and João Gilberto. After many sessions in clubs in the 80s and 90s, he founded the band projects “Brasil Nativo”, “Via Brasil” and “Alegria”. Having moved to Berlin, he collaborated with a wide variety of musicians and made many radio, TV and CD recordings. Important milestones in his musical career were courses with artists such as the “New York Voices”, Mili Bermejo, Judy Niemack, Nelson Faria and Célia Vaz.
With “Trio Cupuaçu” he recorded the CD of the same name with Volker Conrath, percussion and Thomas Walter Maria, saxophone and flute. The repertoire consists mainly of tunes of their own, alongside Brazilian classics. “Planetão – live at Quasimodo” is the name of the CD that Hans Limburg recorded with the quintet “Planetão” in Berlin at the end of 2003, with Brazilian standards by Tom Jobim, Marcos Valle and others. In 2005, “Trio Cupuaçu” and his band “Bassanova”  were prize winners at the “Latin Award Berlin”.
In 2008, Hans Limburg, voice and Tobias Langguth, guitar were price winners at the international competition “Voice & Guitar” in Völklingen/Saar. In the same year, Hans spend six months in Brazil and recorded the CD “From Brazil…With Love” in Recife, Pernambuco, The CD, on which Hans is also arranger, producer and musical director, features songs written by João Bosco, Ivan Lins, Djavan and others and his own composition with Nigel Shore “A Linda Melodia Do Amor”. Featured soloists are Nigel Shore (oboe) and Fabinho Costa (trumpet and flugelhorn).
His latest CD “Hans Limburg – Solo, Live in Berlin” is coming soon.

Keiko Borjeson

Keiko was born in Tokyo. She started playing piano at the age of three and made her Japanese TV debut when she was five years old, playing Beethoven’s “Für Elise”.
Her professional career in music began when she graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Piano at the Toho Gakuen University in Tokyo. She then pursued further studies, graduating in 1973 at the Siena Academia Quigiana in Italy, in 1976 at the Hurry Field School of music in Los Angeles, and in 1980 at the Wayne State University in Michigan, USA. She moved to Detroit Michigan and met such jazz legends as Carmen McRae, Sir Roland Hanna, Hank Jones and Mal Waldron.
Keiko Borjeson has played at jazz festivals in Italy, Latvia, Sweden, China, Poland, Germany, England, Russia, Hong Kong and Egypt as well at the White House. In 2008 she took part in a Charity Concert for the United Nations African Mothers Association and toured to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Latvia and the Philippines.
Keiko has been awarded the Jazz Audio Prize and the Jazz Critics’ Award for her CDs, as well as the North Star Medal from the King of Sweden.
Keiko plays elegant swing-flavoured jazz with a distinct be-bop influence: Hank Jones called her “one of the most innovative pianists I have known and listened to in years. Adventurous, light-hearted style, a combination that may seem contradictory, they crystallize perfectly in the hands of Keiko”.

Håkan Börjeson

Håkan Börjeson was born and educated in Sweden. He received a classical violin education, studying with Georg Papmehl (himself a pupil of Karl Flesch) and gave numerous performances on Swedish Broadcasting and Swedish Television.

As leader of New Sweden Hot Quartet, he performed at the United Nations in New York in 1988 and 1989.

Other concert tours took him to the USA in 1991, 1998 and 2007. He has performed at Jazz festivals and other concerts in Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Philippines, Spain, and Thailand.

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