Tour Dates: 25th December, 2011- 8th January, 2012

"This orchestra has as distinguished a group of performers as one would be likely to find anywhere. The ensemble of the orchestra is of the highest level..."

"This orchestra has as distinguished a group of performers as one would be likely to find anywhere. The ensemble of the orchestra is of the highest level. In addition, the various soloist and instrumental groups within the Orchestra play exceptionally and complement each other beautifully - as would greatest of the world's symphony orchestras."

——Dmitri Shostakovich

The NSOU is one of the best symphony orchestras from the Eastern Europe. It was formed in November 1918 by Counsel of Ministers of Ukraine. The Orchestra has gained international recognition over remarkable short period of time.

The first conductor was Oleksander Horilyj. Natan Rachlin was Artist Director of the orchestra from 1937 for 25 years. Stefan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuchar, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov and Theodore Kuchar consequently conducted the orchestra as Principal Conductors. Other conductors who worked with the NSOU included Leopold Stokovsky, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Evgeny Mravinsky, Kirill Kondrashyn, Evgeny Svetlanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Soloists who have performed with the NSOU included Artur Rubinstein, Yehudy Menuhin, Isaak Stern, David Oistrach, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Oleh Krysa, Monserrat Kaballe, Jose Carreras, Juan Diego Florez.

The NSOU was trusted with the premier performances by the works of following composers: Sergiy Prokofiev, Dmitriy Shostakovich, Aram Khatchaturian, Boris Lyatoshynsky, Valentyn Silvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk, Evgen Stankovych.

Since from the 1993th, the NSOU has recorded more than 80 compact discs included Ukrainian and International repertoires. Most of these recordings have received the highest international acclaim. In the 1994th, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) rated NSOU's recording of Boris Lyatoshynsky's Symphonies No.2 and No.3 as "The Best Recording of the Year". The CD of Silverstov's "Requiem for Larissa" was nominated for the 47th Grammy Awards; the CD of Bloch and Lees's Violin Concertos was nominated for the 51st Grammy Awards.

Tour conductor: Nicola Giuliani

Nicola Giuliani is an acclaimed conductor. He studied at the N. Piccinni Conservatorio of Music in Bari, Italy and subsequently attended courses and master classes in orchestral conducting, including: the Kirill Kondrashin Conductors Masterclass in Holland, the "Pomeriggi Musicali" in Milan and the O. Respighi Academy in Rome with M.Atzmon, E. Erdely, G. Kuhn, N. Samale amongst others. Mr.Giuliani has also attended chamber music courses and master classes with M. Bourgue, G. Garbarino and D. Short. He has also attended courses of perfection in horn playing with B. Tuckwell and J. Falout.

Nicola Giuliani has conducted, and continues to work orchestras nationally and internationally, in countries including: Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Rumania, Bulgaria, Poland, the ex-USSR, the USA and Venezuela. Mr. Giuliani further conducts an annual international tour with various orchestras including, the G. Enescu Philharmonic of Bucarest, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra and the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra of Kiev. He has made important appearances at venues, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Herkules-Saal in Munich, the Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle, the Hamburg Musikhalle and the Sala Verdi at the Milan Conservatorio of Music.

Mr. Giuliani continues to collaborate with renowned soloists including Leo Nucci, Fiorenza Cossotto, Chris Merrit, Elena Obrazova, Katia Ricciarelli, Paola Romanò, Boris Petrussansky, Natalia Lomeiko, Benedetto Lupo, Oystein Baadsvik, Julian Rachlin, Giuseppe Albanese and Feng Ning.

Mr. Giuliani has also worked as a principal guest conductor at the Odessa Opera House in 1992-1996, conducting performances of Norma, Carmen, Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida, Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Nabucco, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Tosca, La Boheme, I Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He has recorded Liszt's "Dante Simphonie" and the Ukranian premiere of Bellini's Messa di Gloria with the Kiev Radio Orchestra and Choir. With the same forces Mr. Giuliani has also made recordings of Verdi's Requiem Mass, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Orff's Carmina Burana and Mahler's 2nd Symphony, while he has conducted the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra & Choir of Kiev on a CD comprising Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and Aldo Finzi's Psalm.

Mr. Giuliani has also had several of his concerts broadcasted nationally, by RAI 3 (Italian national television channel), featuring the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra, and internationally for the Rumenian Radio Television, Rigoletto with Leo Nucci, the Ukrainian Radio, Liszt Dante Symphony, and the Ukrainian Television, Symphonic Concert, Overtures of Wagner.

Soprano：Anastasiya Sherbataya

Since 2007, Anastasiya Scherbataya is the solo soprano of the National Opera of Odessa. She is also a singing professor at the Odessa music Academy since 2008.
She studied singing with PR.DZHAMAGORTIAN and has won first prize in many singing competitions. Her repertoire is very rich from the Classic to the contemporary operas and she gives regularly Liederabende all over Russia, Germany, Italy and France.

Tenor：Vladislav Goray

Vladislav Goray was born in 1967 in Zhitomir (Ukraine). He graduated from the State Odessa Conservatory of Music in 1998. He has won many prizes including the Laureate rank in Khmelnitzkiy National Competition of Chamber Music in 1990 and Laureate rank in Karlovy-Vary (Czech) International Competition for Singers in 1995.

These years, Vladislav Goray has been performing in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, UK, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Israel, Poland, Canada, Holland, USA, Russia, Macao and France.

The Horus Piano Duo

Nora Emödy & Ahmed Abou-Zahra

The sensational international concert career of the Horus Piano duo began with winning all the major piano duo competitions including, the Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (Miami, 1999), International Chamber Music Competition (Pavia, 2000), Ibla Grand Prize (Sicily, 2000), S. Pintacuda International Competition for Piano Four Hands (Palermo, 2000), International Two Piano Competition (Caltanissetta, 2000), International W. Jacobi Competition for Contemporary Chamber Music (Munich, 2001), Max Reger Institute (Germany, 2002) and the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition (Verona, 2003)

Since then the duo has performed to great public and critical acclaim at many of the major concert halls of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. Festival appearances include e.g. the Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, the Radio WDR Cologne concerts, The Banff Summer Piano Festival (Canada), Heidelberg Spring Music Festival (Germany), Szeged Chamber Music Festival (Hungary), Ljubljana Music Festival (Slovenia), the International Piano Duo Festival in Bad-Herrenalb, Germany and the Cervantino International Festival (Mexico).

In addition, the artists have appeared with orchestras, among others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of England, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Heidelberg Philharmonic, Magdeburg Philharmonic, Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra and the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester. They have performed under the baton of conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Enrique Batiz and Thomas Kalb. In 2006 the duo was invited to play with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Prague at the prestigious Rudolfinum. This concert was broadcast live on all major European radio stations.

Having made five tours of China since 2003, they have had the opportunity to play in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai as well as in the cities of Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Liuzhou, Shangsha, and Shenyang. Their six tours to Mexico have included concerts in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato, Matamoros and in Ciudad Victoria, Neuvo Laredo, Tampico, St. Miguell Dallenda. Other tours have taken them to Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, England, Namibia and Slovenia, and they are invited to play every season at the Cairo Opera House.

The Hungarian pianist Nóra Emödy first met Egyptian pianist Ahmed Abou-Zahra in Freiburg where they both studied and in 1996 they formed the Horus Piano Duo. Nóra studied piano with Katalin Schweitzer, Tibor Hazay and James Avery, Ferenc Rados, Ahmed studied with Marcelle Matta, James Avery, András Schiff and Ferenc Rados. The Horus Duo has explored the duo repertoire with Paul Dan, György Kurtág, Ferenc Rados and András Schiff.

In 1997 and 1999 they were invited for a three-month stay as artists in residence by the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada culminating in a tour throughout the country. In 2000 the duo was granted a scholarship from the city of Baden-Baden for a four-week stay at the Brahms House.

Many of their concerts have been transmitted live on the South German Radio, Bavarian Radio, BBC, Canadian Radio, Mexican Television and Egyptian Radio and Television.