Cliburn 2009: May 22 - June 7
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closeTuesday, May. 12, 2009
Cliburn Confidential: Vassilis Varvaresos
A series of conversations with the Cliburn competitors
Vassilis Varvaresos
(pronounced va-SIL-ees var-var-ay-sos)
Nationality: Greek
Born: Thessaloniki, Greece
Lives: New York City
Age: 25 (he’ll turn 26 during the competition)
His background: Varvaresos grew up in Greece and was a natural performer from age 5. At 14, he was the youngest pianist to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which gave him a concert career as a teenager. He came to New York in 2001 to study piano at the Juilliard School, where he’s now doing graduate work.
Reading habits: He loves mythology and just finished reading The Iliad for the second time. He also likes to quote philosophers and The Inner Game of Tennis, a book by W. Timothy Gallwey about the mental side of competition.
His education: Varvaresos did his undergraduate work at Juilliard, but he also wanted to study linguistics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. When he was accepted at both schools, he managed to maintain enrollment in both places for two or three years. (Note: This is not something people do.) "When I would go home to Greece in the summer," he says, "it was the same time of year that they had exams in linguistics." So he’d get the book, catch up on the material, then take the final in classes like Phonetics of Ancient Greece. "I think I passed seven or eight courses," he says, before abandoning dual-enrollment.
Beyond the keyboard: Varvaresos has composed music for a handful of short films, including a documentary on artist Ellsworth Kelly.
His roommate: Fellow Juilliard classmate — and Cliburn competitor — Ran Dank and he share a Washington Heights apartment, where they devote a lot of time to listening to music (especially Horowitz and Rachmaninoff) and trying to outdo each other at video games.
When he’s not listening to music: Varvaresos and his roommate are both fans of the British comedian Eddie Izzard.
On getting into the Cliburn: He was sure his audition hadn’t gone well — but then Cliburn President Richard Rodzinski called Varvaresos to say he’d made the cut. "I said, 'Wait. You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re kidding me, right?’ He said, 'I’m not kidding.’ I said, 'This is a joke, right?’ He said, 'It’s not a joke.’ So I started shouting — running in circles and shouting."
— Alyson Ward
Bass Hall
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