ALEX DEMETRIOU
Alex Demetriou was born in London to
Hungarian and Greek-Cypriot parents.
He began to study the piano at the age
of three, first under the Suzuki Institute,
giving solo performances as a child
in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Sheldonian
Theatre Oxford, St. John's Smith Square
and Holland. He then studied with Roshan
Magub, pupil of Alfred Brendel and Head
of Keyboard at the Purcell School. He
gained a full music scholarship to the
City of London School where he performed
the Grieg Piano Concerto. For five years
Alex studied with Mark Swartzentruber,
pupil of Maria Curcio.
From 1996 to 1999, he attended the
University of East Anglia, studying
piano with Christopher Green-Armytage,
and holding major performance awards
in two successive years - the Barry
McBeath Scholarship and the George Alfred
Norman Watkins Scholarship. He was selected
to represent the School of Music in
two successive annual concerts and graduated
in 1999 with a BA (Hons) in Music. He
then spent a year in Paris studying
with Maciej Pikulski, accompanist to
Felicity Lott and Jose van Dam, before
returning to UEA to complete a Masters
Degree in Musical Performance, which
he achieved with Distinction.
Alex is active as soloist, chamber
musician, accompanist and teacher. As
soloist he has performed Gershwin's
Rhapsody in Blue in Norwich Cathedral,
Beethoven's Choral Fantasia in St.Andrew's
Hall Norwich, as well as recitals in
all the major venues of Norfolk and
Suffolk including the John Innes Centre,
King of Hearts, Assembly House Norwich,
Guildhall Bury St. Edmunds and the Town
Hall, Aylsham. In the field of chamber
music he has performed with leading
trios and duos, Atsuko Negami (violin)
and Evgeny Chebykin (one of the leading
horn players of his generation).
Recently he has been partnering the
brilliant winner of the Enesco International
Violin Competition, Jeanine Thorpe.
They were invited to give a recital
in the Norfolk and Norwich Festival
last May, and have also given many concerts
around Norfolk and Suffolk, which have
been very well received.
In 2006 Alex will give recitals in
the UK and Germany with the Cellist
Annegret Hanslik, while in 2007 he will
appear with the Con Tempo Quartet of
Romania.
Alex holds a piano teaching post at
Norwich School and has a number of private
pupils of all ages. He has a vast compact
disc collection spanning all genres,
with a particular love of historical
and 'live' recordings, of which those
by Sviatoslav Richter, Jorge Bolet and
Wilhelm Furtwangler hold a special place.