Salamis ruins will host 250 singers and musicians from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and North Cyprus on the stage of the ancient theatre at two free-of-charge, open-air concerts on August 3 and 4.
Cultural ambassador, musician and head of the Cyprus Art, Music and Ballet School Turgay Hilmi announced last week that he would organise the summer concerts with Gazimagusa Mayor Ismail Arter.
Mr Hilmi added: ”Many of the visiting musicians are my friends and these good people expect nothing back and are covering their travel and hotel expenses themselves.”
The well-known Turish Cypriot musician also teaches at the Friedrich Alexander University in Nuremberg. He organised a similar Salamis event in 1998 when a 316-strong German company gave an unforgettable performance of Verdi’s Othello. Mr Hilmi staged Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio at Girne Castle the following year as well as many Bellapais concerts.
Nuremberg-based Lehrergesangverein (Teachers’) Choir and the Austrian Nowacanto Choir will join the Zürich Academik Orchestra and local Cyprus Art Music Youth Choir for the concerts which will be conducted by Tarmo Vaask, Murat Üstün and Mr Hilmi.
The evening programme will open with an orchestral versin of Porgy and Bess followed by Rhapsody in Blue featuring solo pianist Eser Öktem and the Kamran Aziz song Kıbrısım. The final movement of Beethoven’s greatest work, his Symphony No 9, completes the programme and will feature soprano soloist Christine Mitter Mair, tenor Michael Novak and bass soloist Marcus Simon.
