Evangelos & Liza

Evangelos & Liza is a classical guitar duo from Greece consisting of Evangelos Assimakopoulos, born in Agrinion, Greece on 10 September 1940 and Liza Zoe, born in Missolonghi, Greece on 8 August 1940. The couple has toured in Europe, U.S. and Canada and serves on the faculty of the Athenaeum Conservatory of Athens.

Evangelos & Liza
Background information
Genresclassical guitar
Years active1963 (1963)–present
Websiteevangelos-liza.com
MembersEvangelos Assimakopoulos and Liza Zoe

Studies

From 1953 both Assimakopoulos and Zoe studied the guitar at the National Conservatoire in Athens under Dimitris Fampas. After receiving First Prizes and the Medals for Outstanding Performance upon graduating, they shared the first two prizes in the International Competition in Naples, Italy in 1960. From the late 1950s they both gave many solo recitals throughout Greece.[1]

They became professors of the guitar at the National Conservatory of Athens in 1962, started playing as a duo in 1963 and were married in 1965 establishing Greece’s first guitar duo, known as the Athenian Guitar Duo.[2] Their son Marios, born in December 1969 is a civil engineer.

For four consecutive periods Evangelos & LIza were awarded scholarships to study with the Presti-Lagoya duo in France and with Andrés Segovia in Spain.

Career

Since 1967 the couple has toured all over the world and given hundreds of recitals in major concert halls, performed for many radio and television stations and taken part in many festivals. They also appear as duo soloists with symphony orchestras, as well as teaching seminars and holding master-classes at universities and academies overseas.[3]

In 1970 The New York Times wrote of them "...at Carnegie Recital Hall last night the society [of Classic Guitar] presented a pair of talented visitors from Greece...the Athenian Duo".[4]

A number of composers such as Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, John W. Duarte and Jorge Morel have written pieces for Evangelos and Liza and the two musicians have written their own transcriptions and arrangements of classical composers, such as J. S. Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin and de Falla.

Since 1991 they have organized the yearly Guitar Festival of Patras, a four-day musical event which includes master-classes, lectures, concerts and guitar competitions. Oscar Ghiglia, Roland Dyens, Marcin Dylla and other well-known guitarists have taken part in this institution.

Evangelos & Liza have produced several records and CDs of works for one and two guitars [5] and they have also published 28 books with works for guitar solo and duo.[5] and over their 50 years of teaching they have established a school of guitarists known both in Greece and abroad.

Guitar discography

References
  1. First strides in the performances of guitar concertos in Greece by Tassos Kolydas. TAR Online Musical Magazine. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  2. Summerfield, Maurice J. (1991). The classical guitar: its evolution and its players since 1800. Ashley Mark. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-872639-00-0.
  3. "teaching". www.evangelos-liza.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  4. "Greek Guitar Duo Plays Handel Work". The New York Times. 14 March 1970. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  5. "Publications". www.evangelos-liza.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  6. "Evangelos & Liza duo: Discography". TAR Online Musical Magazine. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
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