Going through its 34th cycle, the concert series "The Young for the Young" is a platform for expression and an important institution for the promotion of distinguished young performers of classical music.
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Christina Bensi was born in 2001 in an artistic family. She started studying the cello at the age of 5 with her father Evgenios Bensis as teacher. She initially studied at the Municipal Conservatory of Argyroupoli where she participated in the Conservatory's orchestra and then at the Chalkidonion Conservatory. At the age of 11, she enrolled at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory and continued her studies with Professor Marina Kislitsina.
At the age of 16, she graduated from the Philippos Nakas Conservatory with honours - 1st prize.
In the meantime, she participated in the international competition "The Muse", in Santorini, receiving the 2nd Prize and a commendation, in "Filonas" competition, receiving the 1st Prize, and also received the scholarship of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe for the academic year2015/2016.
She has taken part in National and International seminars in Lefkada with Dimitris Patras, in Athens with Dimitris Toufexis "getting to know the orchestra as soloist", in Rome with Antonio Meneses, in Austria (ISA seminars) with Xenia Jankovic, Christoph Richter and Romain Garioux, in Manchester with Rafael Wolfisch, in Lithuania with Nicholas Jones, in Germany with Wenn-Sinn Yang as well as in chamber music seminars in Manchester and in Montepulciano.
From 2013 to 2017 she was a member of the youth orchestra Kamerata-Junior Orchestra of Friends of Music, where in recent years she performed
first cello and repeatedly appeared as a soloist.
From September 2017 to 2019 she studied on scholarship (MDS) from the British government at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester with professor Nick Jones.
In 2017 she performed with the C.S.O (Chetham's Symphony Orchestra) at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, gave a chamber music concert and sang with Chetham's Choir at Manchester Cathedral.
In 2018 she participated in a Chamber Music Concert at the RNCM (Royal Northern College of Music), and a concert at Grapenhall Cathedral.
In the summer of 2018, she participated in a concert in Austria, at Beethoven's summer residence in Baden. Also in December at Manchester Northern Lights concert-Stoller Hall, lunch-time concert at St James in Piccadilly, in a concert in London with Baroque music and a concert with a string quintet in Manchester.
In 2019, she participated in the Tasos Pappas competition, in Thessaloniki, where she won the 1st prize in her category and the special Tasos Pappas Award for talented young musicians and graduated from Chetham's School of Music in Manchester. She was also accepted to the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany with professor Xenia Jankovic.
In 2021 she participated in the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade where she advanced to the semi-final round and won the prize for the best performance of the obligatory piece Odysseus by composer Nimrod Borenstein.
Pianist Kanami Ito was born in Yokohama, Japan and raised in Tokyo.
She took her first piano lessons at the age of four. In 2010 she began her studies at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo with professors Minoru Umemoto and Chiharu Hanaoka. In 2013 she received the Okada Kuro Scholarship and a scholarship from the Kunitachi Music Academy to attend the Nice International Summer Academy. She graduated from there as the "top" of her year.
In 2016 she moved to Germany, where she completed her postgraduate studies as a piano soloist at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with professor Jacob Leuschner, graduating in 2019.
Since 2019, she is pursuing her master's degree in chamber music for piano at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Prof. Jacob Leuschner and she is a teaching as assistant in the cello classes of Prof. Alexander Gebert and Prof. Xenia Jankovic at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.
PROGRAM
F. Mendelssohn Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58
D. Shostakovich Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
R. Schumann Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
SATURDAY 4 MARCH 2023
AT 19:00 HRS
FREE ENTRANCE
PHILIPPOS NAKAS CONCERT HALL | IPPOKRATOUS 41 ATHENS | TEL.: 2103634000