Curriculum Vitae
Skouras Andreas
Pianist
The greek- german pianist and harpsichordist Andreas Skouras was born in 1972 in Salonica (Greece) and studied piano with Prof. Franz Massinger and harpsichord with Prof. Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Prof. Ketil Haugsand at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts.
Concert appearances, CD, radio and television productions as pianist and harpsichordist with orchestra or solo, in chamber music and Lied recitals regularly lead him throughout Europe and to festivals like “Early Music” in London, Festival Aix- en-Provence, Gidon Kremer’s “Lockenhaus”, “les museiques” in Basel, “Sacrum Profanum” in Krakow, the Bluval Festival, Summer Concerts between Danube and Altmuhl, MDR Music Summer as well as to the U.S., where among others he has performed in the New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall. His chamber music partners include Peter Sadlo, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Gábor Boldoczki, Wen- Sinn Yang and Minas Borboudakis. Skouras’ precision and the ability to acquire a so far unknown work to him within a very short period of time, made him a demanded interpreter, for instance he was performing together with the English Chamber Orchestra, the ASKO Ensemble, the Münchner Kammerorchester, the Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt and conductors like Peter Eötvös, Lucas Vis, Ralph Gopthoni, Constantinos Carydis, Markus Poschner, Christoph Poppen and Jac van Steen.
In Janury 2008 he had his very successful debut in the Great Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam as soloist in Elliott Carters Double Concerto under Peter Eötvös. After that he was invited by tue Ensemble Intercontemporain to perform the same piece in Paris with Susanna Mällki.
Skouras’ repertoiry includes the complete Well-Tempered Clavier and the Art of Fugue by J. S. Bach, the complete Mozart and Haydn Sonatas, as well as works by composers of the romantic era. In 2007 he performed the complete piano work by J. Brahms cyclically in Munich and Leipzig. In 2008 he well perform a circle called “The Golden Era of the Piano”. Naturally Skouras puts a special focus on works by Greek composers. So he is one of the few harpsichordists worldwide who plays “Khoai” by Iannis Xenakis, one of the most difficult pieces for this instrument.
Compositions that have never or rarely been played before are preferred by Skouras to be performed. He gained wide acclaim of auditors and specialists when he rediscovered Richard Strauss’ Suite for harpsichord solo from the opera “Capriccio” and for his performance of Elgars Enigma Variations transcribed by composer himself. In spring 2006 Skouras gave the first performance of “Dancing Fauns” for piano by Carl Orff at the Orff-Centre Munich. His intensive work on contemporary music is proven by co-operations with many well-known composers who wrote pieces especially for him – for example Aho, Kochan, Stadlmair, Corcoran, Schwenk, Zahnhausen, Glanert, Zechlin, Acker, Borboudakis, Baur, Terzakis, Kiesewetter, B. Hummel, Weiß, & Eliasson.
Andreas Skouras teaches harpsichord at the University of Music in Munich and he frequently holds piano master classes at the Academy of Music in Tbilisi, Georgia. Among others he was awarded the music scholarship of the City of Munich and the Bavarian Arts Prize.