Biography
Steinway Artist Nicolas Costantinou is renowned for impressing audiences with his daring selection of repertoire, both established and contemporary, and for his ability to collaborate with exceptional 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).
Concert Career and International Presence
Nicolas has given numerous concerts in Austria, Cyprus, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Lebanon, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. He has appeared 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.
He is frequently invited to perform at international festivals across Europe, including 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.
As a soloist, 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, collaborating with conductors 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 21st year, organising concerts and festivals in Cyprus and abroad.
Chamber Music and Collaborations
Alongside his solo career, Nicolas is deeply committed to chamber music and collaborative projects. He has worked with internationally acclaimed musicians and singers, including violinists Vilmos Szabadi, Chloë Hanslip, Simos Papanas, Nikos Pittas, Wolfgang Schroeder, and Kazuhiro Tagaki; violist Maté Szűcs; cellists Gustav Rivinius, Erkki Rautio, David Cohen, Péter Somodari, and Tytus Miecznikowski; flautists János Bálint and Virginie Bove; oboist Francesco Quaranta; clarinettist Gábor Varga; as well as the Meta4 and Akadémia String Quartets.
His particular affinity for Art Song has led to collaborations with sopranos Margarita Elia, Zoe Nicolaidou, and Theodora Raftis; mezzo-soprano Elli Aloneftou; tenors Christian Zenker, Andreas Aroditis, Stelios Georgiou, and Marios Andreou; and baritone Kyros Patsalides.
He also occasionally engages in interdisciplinary projects with dancers, choreographers, painters, and other multimedia artists.
Commitment to Contemporary and Cypriot Music
Nicolas 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).
Recordings
Nicolas has recorded five albums under the Odradek label:
- Metavasis (2023), featuring Stylianou’s 12 Préludes, Series I
- Past Forward (2023), including Stylianou’s first two viola sonatas with violist Máté Szűcs
- Hedra (2023), sonatas for cello and piano with cellist Péter Somodari
- Empneusis (2025), works for clarinet and piano with clarinettist Gábor Varga
- Kýma (2025), twentieth- and twenty-first-century sonatas for flute and piano with flautist János Bálint
Selected Projects and Highlights
In 2018, Dr Costantinou collaborated with Simos Papanas, Maté Szűcs, and Péter Somodari in a piano quartet concert featuring works by Mozart, Brahms, and Schumann. Earlier in the same year, he toured with an all-Chopin programme (Larnaca, Nicosia, Beirut, and London). He has also performed, for the first time in Cyprus, Beethoven’s complete works for piano and violin (2013–14) with Nikos Pittas and for piano and cello (2015–16) with Péter Somodari.
Education and Musical Formation
Nicolas’ passion for music and the arts was cultivated from an early age, coming from a family of musicians, artists, actors, dancers, choreographers, and architects. He graduated from the Hellenic Academy of Music, the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Szeged, and the Ferenc Liszt University of Music in Budapest (summa cum laude). He holds a Master of Music in Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA) and a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London, supervised by 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, Daniel Shapiro, Sándor Falvai, Ferenc Kerek, and Tania Economou, and has participated in masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Nicolas Economou, Vadim Suchanov, and Ferenc Rados.
Teaching and Pedagogical Activity
Dr Costantinou taught piano at the European University and at the University of Nicosia (Assistant Professor) and currently teaches piano at the Cyprus Music Schools. His students have won numerous prizes at international competitions and attended masterclasses with distinguished professors. Several have pursued further studies at renowned institutions, including the Reina Sofía Escuela Superior de Música in Madrid, Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Purcell School in London, the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
His articles on Beethoven have been published in the journal Diorama.
Personal Interests & Pedagogical Philosophy
Nicolas has a love for languages and speaks five fluently. He is also deeply committed to pianistic health and is a Certified Taubman Instructor, advocating a technique that ensures freedom, efficiency, and injury prevention.
(2023)
Includes C.Y. Stylianou’s first two viola sonatas, recorded with violist Máté Szűcs.
(2025)
REVIEWS
-24 February 2020
– September-October 2009
- April-May 2005
– August, 4 2003
-January 2, 2002