Biography

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).

Early age

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 studied with Edna Golandsky, Márta Gulyás, Dr. Daniel Shapiro, Sándor Falvai, Ferenc Kerek, and Tania Economou, and he has participated in masterclasses held by acknowledged pianists Dmitri Bashkirov, Nicolas Economou, Vadim Suchanov, and Ferenc Rados.

taught piano at the European University and the University of Nicosia

Dr. Costantinou taught piano at the European University and the University of Nicosia (Assistant Professor) and is currently teaching piano at 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, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. The Diorama journal has published his articles on Beethoven.

2018

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.

Recorded albums

Nicolas has already recorded five albums under the Odradek label.

1. Metavasis

(2023)

Features C. Y. Stylianou’s 12 Préludes, Series I

2. Past Forward

(2023)

Includes Stylianou’s first two viola sonatas, recorded with violist Máté Szűcs.

3. Hedra

(2023)

Presents various sonatas for cello and piano with cellist Péter Somodari.

4. Empneusis

(2025)

Features works for clarinet and piano with clarinettist Gábor Varga

5. Kýma

(2025)

Dedicated to twentieth- and twenty-first-century sonatas for flute and piano with flutist János Bálint.

REVIEWS

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

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