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The Greek pianist, Alexandra Papastefanou (Greek: Αλεξάνδρα Παπαστεφάνου), born into a musical family, graduated from the Athens Conservatoire, where she studied piano under Aliki Vatikioti. She followed her studies with Olga Zhukova at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, with Peter Solymos, at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and, on a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation, at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, with György Sebők. She has also taken lessons from Alfred Brendel, who has praised who has praised her playing and editing of The Well-Tempered Clavier. She was a finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland and has received the Liebstoeckl and Fazioli Prizes at the International Geneva Competition, as well as the Spyros Motsenigos Prize from the Academy of Athens. Whilst pursuing her piano studies, she took up music theory and composition, firstly with I.A. Papaioannou, and then later, in the USA, under Frederic Fox.
Along with her activity as a performer, Alexandra Papastefanou pursued her in-depth study of J.S. Bach’s music, the meaning and enduring appeal of which she examined in a lecture series). She has performed all of J.S. Bach’s keyboard works and, in recital cycles, has presented his complete Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846-869 & BWV 870-893) (which she also edited for Nakas Music Publications), the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), the Art of Fugue (BWV 1080), The Musical Offering (BWV 1079) as well as his keyboard concertos. She has also performed and recorded the works of Robert Schumann.
Her diverse repertoire extends from composers of the baroque era to more recent composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti and George Crumb. Alexandra Papastefanou has also repeatedly performed and recorded the piano works of major Greek composers Dimitri Mitropoulos, Nikos Skalkottas, George Koumendakis, I.A. Papaioannou and Vangelis Katsoulis. Her musical career has also extended to lecture-recitals, featuring innovative thematic cycles that she has chosen and presented including Fantasias for Piano, Works Inspired by Fairy Tales, Romantic German Literature and the Music of Robert Schumann, The Tradition of the French Clavecinists in the Piano Works of Debussy and Ravel, Sounds of Nature and the Exotic Element in Music, Music and Astronomy, Music and Poetry, and Music and Myth.
Alexandra Papastefanou has appeared, always to enthusiastic acclaim, with symphony orchestras, in solo recitals and with chamber music groups across Europe (in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, the Czech Republic, Russia, Finland and Hungary), the USA and Canada.
Also, Alexandra Papastefanou recorded her debut album, as a composer, entitled "Enamel" (Smalto, in Greek), a collection of songs to her own compositions, lyrics and musical arrangements (released on Lyra Records). Recently, her composition cycle 12 Minerals, for solo piano, and 12+1 Shells and Shadows, for voice and piano, were published by Ph. Nakas Music Publications. In 2018, she plans to record the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) of J.S. Bach in The Corycian Cave in Greece, famous amongst of reason for being the place of worship of the mythical Greek god Pan. |
