ENSEMBLES

VLADIMIR&ESTRAGON PIANO DUO

The Vladimir&Estragon Piano Duo consists of Andriana Minou and Nikos Stavlas. Andriana and Nikos have both completed a doctorate in Piano Performance Practice at Goldsmiths College, London. They have been performing as a duo since 2006 and they have presented concerts with great success in various venues in London (such as Non-Classical, The Nave, The Space, Deptford Town Hall, The Eccentric Club), Norway, France and Greece. Through their performances they seek to combine artistic excellence with enjoyable programmes that all sorts of audiences can engage with. Their repertoire extends from the classical and romantic eras to the 20th and 21st centuries, including pieces which are among the favourites of the piano duet repertoire as well as not so well known but equally worth-playing pieces and works written especially for the Vladimir&Estragon Piano Duo. The enthusiastic response of the audiences to all their concerts is the best proof of the efficiency of their choice of repertoire as well as of their radiant stage presence and remarkable communication with all kinds of audiences.

“Although there is certainly an intimacy to watching Vladimir and Estragon, a certain sense of being invited into their living room, or their private world, there is little to be considered tame. In their gleefully anarchic romps through a repertoire on the borders of respectability, there is a kind of soft subversion, a teasing provocation ... To Vladimir and Estragon then, a piano duo as sensual, as irreverent as Schubert himself”

Robert Barry

(Review at http://thebombparty.blogspot.com/2010/03/piano-four-hands-vladimir-and-estragon.html )

OISEAUX BIZARRES ENSEMBLE

The Oiseaux Bizarres is an ensemble that consists of musicians and performers, all with postgraduate or PhD studies, based in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen. The ensemble is led by Andriana Minou, a pianist, writer, director, performer and composer, who completed her PhD studies at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2010. So far, the ensemble has presented performances of pieces by Jani Christou, Thanasis Deligiannis and Andriana Minou, and is currently working on new music and interdisciplinary projects.

The core of the ensemble consists of Andriana Minou, Thanasis Deligiannis, Angelina Kartsaki, Eirini Kartsaki, Nikos Stavlas, Alexis Ioannou, Sophia Baltatzi, Manolis Benetos, Haris Saslis, Danai Pappa, Artemis Ignatidou and Danai Bletsa.

The ensemble has performed at Goldsmiths University of London (2010), PureGold Festival London (2011), Sonorities Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2012), as well as at the International Jani Christou Conference London (2013), at KET, Athens, as part of Soundacts Festival in 2015 and their last performance took place at Cooking History / Consuming Art, a one-day symposium at Senate House, London on 26/4/2016.

COOCOOLILI

Andriana is also a leading member of Coocoolili, a group of musicians and performers presenting an evening of a variety of acts brought together under a common theme; an evening of music, songs, spoken word, performance, dance, quirky tomfooleries, profound ideas and profanities. We are explorers of uncharted silliness and seas of trouble, intoxicated with fumes of general infatuation, on an artistic quest in search of the holy whale. Through music, text and a variety of integrated media, we interpret realities, we tell stories, we create a space where informal sharing can happen, and we want to offer a relaxed, warm evening among stranger friends and acquaintances. We are open to ideas and invitations but small talk is prohibited. Coocoolili events take place regularly at Jamboree, London.