July 2010 The Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble will present a concert on July 31, 2010 at St Alfege church, Greenwich. Unusually, the concert will open with solo piano performances of selected students from the Duo's Blackheath Piano Studio. The students, who range in age from 9 to adults, have distinguished themselves in recent exams and student festivals. The Duo pianists hope that this opportunity will stimulate further music-making by sharing the excitement of a professional concert. Entrance is free with retiring collection.
April 2010 Panayotis Archontides has started working on the new four-hand piano arrangements of Miklos Rozsa's Lydia and John Williams' Monsignor. The arrangements will be premiered in the duo's recital in Oxford (May 29, 2010).
December 2009 The Ivory Duo is again in the studio recording Brahms Hungarian Dances with their engineer Oscar Torres. Keep checking back to see when the tracks will become available.
October 2009 The CD Romantic Dance Music for Piano Duo is now distributed worldwide through Amazon (UK, US, Canada, Germany, Japan, China), iTunes, Napster and others thanks to their distribution deal with CDBaby.
September 2009 Beautiful photographs from our concerts, along with bio and other information has been published and is available through Lulu.com. The photographs are copyright of the award winning Marte Lekaa of MLR Photo.
February 2009 New Steinway grand piano for Blackheath Piano Studio and Ivory Duo. Ivory Duo's Blackheath Piano Studio just acquired a beautiful Steinway- Boston GP178. Their warmest thanks go to Maura Romano of Steinway&Sons, London, for helping them select and acquire a piano of great sensitivity and warm sound.
Natalie Tsaldarakis and Panayotis Archontides have been confirmed as separate guest speakers at the WorldPiano Conference, Serbia 2009. Natalie will be presenting a lecture recital on Y. Constantinides' 44 Children's pieces. Likewise, Panayotis will present his lecture recital on Miklos Rozsa. Both have been scheduled for Monday 4 May 2009 (WPC, Serbia, EPTA).
December 2008 Natalie Tsaldarakis appointed Co-ordinator for Higher Education Music Performance at Canterbury College. Natalie has just completed her first term as the new co-ordinator for HE Music Performance at Canterbury College. The appointment has also given her the status of Associate Tutor of Canterbury University, Christ Church, due to her liaising responsibilities with the University for the co-ordination of the HND course at Canterbury College. Natalie hopes to bring together her educational and research interests, while promoting her parallel concert career.
The Ivory Duo starts recording their own film music arrangements. After the succesful premiere of some of their film music arrangements in venues around London, the duo has started recording and hopes to release the CD within 2009. The release is to be followed by promotional concerts in known venues in London and elsewhere.
August 2008 Regent Hall premiere of four-hand piano arrangements: Greek and film music
On August 15, an important celebration date in the Greek calendar, the Ivory Duo, London-based husband-and-wife duet with Greek pianists Natalie Tsaldarakis and Panayotis Archontides, will offer a four-hand piano recital with works by major Greek composers Nikos Skalkottas and Yannis Constantinides, as well as their own arrangements of film music by Alex North and Bernard Herrmann. In collaboration with Trinity College of Music.
2008 Press Releases:
January 2008 London Debut Recital, St John's, Smith Square The Ivory Duo will perform at the prestigious St John's, Smith Square on 19/1/2008. The concert offers the rare opportunity to hear works for two pianos. The second piano is supplied by Jacques Samuel, London. Visit our concert pages for more details.
March 2008 The Ivory Duo performs on rare Pleyel double piano The Ivory Duo have been invited for a private viewing and trying out of a newly restored rare Pleyel double piano. The restorer is David Winston whose restored instruments can be found in places of distinction, such as Buckingham Palace and the Royal College of Music.
UK Premiere of Yannis Constantinides' 44 Children's Songs Natalie Tsaldarakis offered an informative lecture-recital on Yannis Constantinides at St Brides', Fleet Street only a day before her two-piano recital at the Reform Club with the Ivory Duo. The well-attended recital resulted in flattering remarks and support for her projected recording of Constantinides' works from representatives of the Greek expat community.
Reform Club Recital Success for the Ivory Duo The Ivory Duo performed a private recital on two pianos for the members of the Reform Club on 25/3/08. Concert series presenter, Michael Corby, commented that the size of the audience was by far the biggest that was drawn. The performance was followed by a reception where audience members had the chance to meet the pianists.
April 2008 Natalie Tsaldarakis live on Resonance FM 104.4 Natalie will appear as guest on Resonance FM 104.4 on Carole Finer's Sound Out on Friday 25/4/08 at 2:00 pm. Natalie along with the other guest of the show, pianist Haydn Dickenson, will discuss with Carole new music, along with Natalie's latest projects and concerts. Excerpts from Natalie's recordings will also be played. To hear the programme you can also visit the Resonance website: http://resonancefm.com/listen
2006-2007
July 2006 Panayotis Archontides gets a double distinction at Trinity College of Music Panayotis was awarded the Byram and Mehroo Jeejeebhoy Award for excellence in performance and becomes Trinity College of Music Scholar for the academic year 2006-2007! The awards were presented to him in the Annual Awards Ceremony at the Chapel of the Old Royal Naval College, part of the historic site of Trinity College of Music.
September 2006 Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Fellowship The Ivory Duo is engaged by TCM for the prestigious Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Fellowship. The four aspiring finalists will be conducting the duo at Beethoven's reduction of the 4th Symphony. The jury will be presided by Sir Mackerras himself.
October 2006 Panayotis Archontides is named Trinity College of Music runner-up at the distinguished Jacques Samuel's Intercollegiate Piano Competition 2006.
November 2006 Panayotis Archontides chosen to appear in concert under James Judd Panayotis wins the TCM Concerto auditions and will be appearing with the TCM symphony orchestra under esteemed conductor James Judd. Performances will take place in March in Brighton and at the Blackheath Halls, London.
1 February 2007 The Ivory Duo in concert! First UK recital of the duo which received a standing ovation from their audience and an invitation to perform again at the most central church of Greenwich, St Alfege.
5 February 2007 Panayotis Archontides' Lecture Recital gets a distinction! The lecture recital presented Rozsa's Sonata for piano op.20 and investigated the degree of fusion of the composer's stylistic features and techniques from both fim and concert music, despite the composer's view of his artistic output as essentially 'A Double Life' (this is the title of his autobiography). The panel was made up of distinguished artists and pedagogues: Philip Fowke, Dr. Mera-Nelson, Timothy Bowers and took place in Trinity College of Music. Watch for Panayotis' upcoming solo recital showcasing the sonata in commemoration of Rozsa's 100 years since his birth (1907).
10 February 2007 Cheltenham Recital gets rave review Panayotis' recital at the Cheltenham Concert Series gets reviewed! See excerpts under 'what critics say' in this site.
March 2007 Natalie will be performing her UK solo debut recital at St Olaves' Church. See forthcoming recitals.
July 2007 The Ivory Duo gets chosen to appear in New Masters' Series The Ivory Duo performs at the New Masters Series, a new concert series seeking to showcase the best new talent in the UK today.
September 2007 Invitation to share research with prestigious IPAM for Natalie Tsaldarakis Natalie is invited to submit her finished dissertation on British Pianism at the IPAM (International Piano Archives, University of Maryland, US).
October 2007 Notable distinction for Panayotis Archontides Panayotis is presented with the coveted Silver Medal for excellence at a special ceremony by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
10 October 2007 London recital in celebration of Rozsa's centenary Panayotis will be performing a solo piano recital in celebration of Miklos Rozsa's centenary. The concert is actively promoted by the official Miklos Rozsa Society, as well as featured in an array of online and off-line publications. The recital performance will be recorded for a future CD release.