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Nicolas Costantinou, piano
Steinway Artist Nicolas Costantinou is renowned for impressing audiences with his daring selection of repertoire, old and new, and his ability to collaborate with extraordinary instrumental ensembles. He has been hailed by critics as “… an artist of deep emotions, who is capable of performing music with his whole being and soul…” (Kaleva, 2003), while his interpretations have been described as “colossal” and “dramatic” (Dimitri Nicolau, 2002).
Nicolas has given numerous concerts in Austria, Cyprus, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Lebanon, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. He has performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Brahms Saal of the Musikverein in Vienna, the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, and the Grand Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Nicolas is frequently invited to perform at international festivals around Europe, such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival (Finland), the Gödöllő Chamber Music Festival (Hungary), and the Kypria Festival (Cyprus). His debut at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall was received with favourable reviews. He has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg, the Budapest Concert Orchestra, the Failoni Chamber Orchestra, and the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, with maestros such as Konrad von Abel, Juri Gilbo, Esa Heikkilä, Notis Georgiou, Spiros Pisinos, Maciej Zoltowski, and Ayis Ioannides. Nicolas is the founder and artistic director of Ledra Music Soloists, a non-profit association now in its 19th year that organises concerts and festivals in Cyprus and abroad.
Alongside his solo career, Nicolas enjoys making music in the company of others and occasionally engages in interdisciplinary collaborations with dancers, choreographers, painters, and other multimedia artists. His chamber music collaborations have included internationally acclaimed musicians and singers such as the violinists Vilmos Szabadi, Chloë Hanslip, Simos Papanas, Nikos Pittas, Wolfgang Schroeder, Kazuhiro Tagaki, violist Maté Szűcs, the cellists Gustav Rivinius, Erkki Rautio, David Cohen, Péter Somodari, Tytus Miecznikowski, the flautists János Bálint, Virginie Bove, oboist Francesco Quaranta, clarinettist Gábor Varga, and the Meta4 and Akadémia string quartets. His passion for Art-Song has led to collaborations with singers such as sopranos Margarita Elia, Zoe Nicolaidou, Theodora Raftis, mezzo-soprano Elli Aloneftou, tenors Christian Zenker, Stelios Georgiou, Marios Andreou, and baritone Kyros Patsalides.
He regularly performs works by Cypriot composers in Cyprus and abroad, including several world premieres, with a particular focus on the music of Constantinos Y. Stylianou (b. 1972).
During 2023, Nicolas released three albums with Odradek. The first, titled Metavasis, features the 12 Preludes, Series I by C. Y. Stylianou. The second, Past Forward, includes Stylianou's first two viola sonatas, performed with violist Máté Szűcs. The third album, Hedra, presents sonatas for cello and piano, in collaboration with cellist Péter Somodari.
In 2025, the same label will release two more albums: the first, Empneusis, featuring works for clarinet and piano alongside Gábor Varga, and the second, Kyma, showcasing works for flute and piano with János Bálint.
In 2018, Dr. Costantinou collaborated with Simos Papanas (the concertmaster of the Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra), Maté Szűcs (former principal viola of the Berliner Philharmoniker), and Péter Somodari (principal cello of the Wiener Philharmoniker) in a piano quartet concert featuring works by Mozart, Brahms, and Schumann, while earlier in the same year, he toured with an all-Chopin programme in 2018 (Larnaca, Nicosia, Beirut, and London). Furthermore, he performed, for the first time in Cyprus, Beethoven’s complete works for piano and violin (2013–14) with violinist Nikos Pittas and for piano and cello (2015–16) with cellist Péter Somodari.
Nicolas’ passion for music and for the arts in general was cultivated from an early age; he comes from a family of well-known musicians, artists, actors, dancers, choreographers, and architects. He graduated from the Hellenic Academy of Music, the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Szeged, the Ferenc Liszt University of Music in Budapest (summa cum laude), and holds a Master of Music in Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music (U.S.). Recently, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from London’s Royal College of Music under the supervision of Prof. Paul Banks, Dr. Julian Jacobson, and Dr. Jane Roper. His dissertation is entitled “The Chamber Music of Ernő Dohnányi: Tradition, Innovation, and ‘Hungarianness’”. He has also studied with Márta Gulyás, Dr. Daniel Shapiro, Sándor Falvai, Ferenc Kerek, Tania Economou, and Wanda Economou-Constantinou, and he has participated in masterclasses held by acknowledged pianists Dmitri Bashkirov, Nicolas Economou, Vadim Suchanov, and Ferenc Rados.
Dr. Costantinou teaches piano at the University of Nicosia and the Cyprus Music Schools. His students have won numerous prizes at international piano competitions and have participated in piano masterclasses with renowned professors. Some of his students have furthered their studies in highly esteemed academies and universities, such as the Reina Sofía Escuela Superior de Música in Madrid, the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, the Purcell School in London, the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Presently, he lives in Cyprus and teaches piano at the Cyprus Music Schools and at the University of Nicosia. The Diorama journal has published his articles on Beethoven.
“The Constantinou-Somodari duo’s Beethoven cycle is a revelation. Their peerless artistry sets a new standard of excellence. The duo’s performance illuminates new details that honor tradition while making the works feel fresh and new. Bravo!”
David Allen Moore
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Associate Professor, The USC Thornton School of Music
24 February 2020“Nicolas Costantinou gave an immaculate account of Mozart’s often genial sonata KV333 on 22 July with all the tempo fluctuations sounding natural. The Andante sang consistently as well and the quite extrovert finale was spritely with moments of vehemence. It was followed with a heroic response to the originality and expressive power of Chopin’s F minor Fantasy, Op. 49. Costantinou also understood this work’s sense of freedom, its grandeur and the inevitability of its unfolding. …”
Max Harrison Musical Opinion – September-October 2009
“He began with Bach’s C minor Partita BWV 826, a notably clean and involving reading, which was followed by Debussy’s Second Book of Images, in which the music’s inherent Impressionism was well to the fore, particularly during the concluding Poissons d’or.”
Robert Matthew-Walker Musical Opinion - April-May 2005
“…Nicolas proved himself to be an artist of deep emotions, who is capable of interpreting music with his whole being and soul…”
Hanna Laulajainen KALEVA – August, 4 2003
Robert Matthew-Walker Musical Opinion - April-May 2005
“Listening, almost accidentally, to Nicolas Costantinou’s performances I must confess that I found myself confronted with colossal interpretation…”
Dimitri Nicolau – Composer January 2, 2002
Contact details:
21 Marathonos st., 2413 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: +357 99 351362 | Email: ncostantinou@gmail.com Web: www.costantinou.com | YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/nicoart1