LiMSO Christmas Gala 2025: Tchaikovsky & Winter Magic
🎟️ Date & Time: Monday, 22 December 2025 | 20:30📍 Venue: Pattihio Municipal Theatre, Limassol🎶 Conductor: Francis Nectarios Guy🎹 Soloist: Anna Avramidou, piano – Winner of the 2025 Cooper International Piano Competition (Cleveland, USA)🎄 Orchestra: Limassol Municipal Symphony Orchestra (LiMSO)👉 Tickets: www.pattihio.com.cy/class/limso-christmas-gala-concert
LiMSO Christmas Gala 2025: Tchaikovsky & Winter Magic
Limassol celebrates Christmas with the most dazzling concert of the year!
A musical journey that unites generations, stirs emotions, and places Limassol at the very heart of the festive season.
The Limassol Municipal Symphony Orchestra (LiMSO) invites the public to its 4th Annual Christmas Gala Concert, Tchaikovsky & Winter Magic, on Monday, December 22, at the Pattihio Municipal Theatre, Limassol.
An evening blending romance, virtuosity, and festive brilliance, conducted by Francis Guy, with piano soloist Anna Avramidou. At the heart of the program stands Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 – one of the most radiant and emotionally charged works of the Romantic repertoire.
The young Cypriot pianist Anna Avramidou, winner of the 2025 Cooper International Piano Competition for her performance of this very concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra, returns to Limassol two years after her triumphant appearance with LiMSO — to once again enchant audiences with her passion, technical mastery, and artistic depth. Alongside the concerto, the program features festive symphonic pages by Tchaikovsky – highlights from Eugene Onegin and The Nutcracker – as well as other seasonal orchestral treasures that fill the stage with melody, emotion, and winter magic.
With the brilliance of Tchaikovsky's music, the energy of LiMSO, and the artistry of a rising international soloist, this year's Gala promises an unforgettable experience, illuminating the Pattihio Theater with light, joy, and the true spirit of Christmas.
Francis Nectarios Guy
Conductor | Musicologist
Dr. Francis Nectarios Guy, a distinguished British-Cypriot conductor and musicologist, is renowned for his concert performances and academic publications, which focus on Western and Southeastern European medieval and contemporary music.
He has collaborated with and studied under acclaimed conductors, composers, and musicologists worldwide, including Yorgo Sicilianos, Dimitar Christoff, Georgi Robev, Vassil Kazandjiev, and Yuri Simonov, among others.
With a vast repertoire spanning symphonic and operatic works, Francis Guy finds great challenge and fulfillment in combining his concert performances with his research. One notable example is his interpretation of compositions written in free bar-line notation, showcased in a series of concerts across Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, and Russia. This innovative approach highlights modern and contemporary composers such as Michel Jarrell, Pierre Boulez, Giya Kancheli, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Yiannis Christou, and Dimitar Christoff.
Francis is the founder and artistic director of the Commandaria Orchestra, a symphonic ensemble based in Limassol involved in numerous local and international projects since 2009. Among these is a collaboration with the Comédie de Genève on Michel Jarrell’s opera Cassandre, staged as part of the Pafos 2017 European Capital of Culture program and performed by the renowned Fanny Ardant. His achievements also include recordings of Dimitar Christoff's music for the Bulgarian National Radio, concert series with the Sofia Sinfonietta, and collaborations with the National Opera of Sofia and the Varna State Opera.
In addition, Francis Guy co-founded the Limassol Municipal Symphony Orchestra (LiMSO) with his Limassolian colleagues. He serves as its guest conductor, curating and directing numerous concerts annually.
Anna Avramidou
Soloist | Piano
Anna Avramidou was born in Cyprus in 2008 to parents of the Greek Diaspora. She began piano lessons at the age of five at the Musica Mundana Music School in the class of Mrs. Mariola Charitidou. She has won distinction in international competitions in Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Mexico, Russia, America and Switzerland.
In addition to her successes in competitions, Anna has attended numerous piano masterclasses with distinguished pianists and teachers, such as Marios Papadopoulos, Thomas Duis, Mira Marchenko, Jacob Katsnelson, Fedele Antonicelli, Natalia Trull, Boris o Petrushansky, Mikhail Voskresensky, Kathryn Stott and Arie Vardi.
She gave her first piano recital at the age of nine. Since then, she has performed at major festivals including the Barletta Festival in Italy, Weimar in Germany, the Pharos Arts Foundation in Cyprus, as well as participating at the Oxford Piano Festival 2025. She has also collaborated with cellist Andrei Ionita and pianist Igor Andreev in the Technopolis concert series.
Anna has appeared as a soloist with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Commandaria Orchestra, the Limassol Municipal Symphony Orchestra, and with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra.
In September 2022, she began studying at the Purcell School for Young Musicians in London under the guidance of Ms. Tessa Nicholson. During her studies, she participated in concerts in the United Kingdom, including the Wigmore Hall, Leeds International Concert Season and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
In 2023, she won the 6th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, Germany, where she received the Grand Prix Prize, Liszt Prize, Classical Sonata Prize, EMCY Prize, and the Junior Jury Prize.
Anna's recent success was in July 2025, when she won the Cooper International Piano Competition in Oberlin, Ohio (USA), having collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. A few months later, she distinguished herself at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, reaching the semi-finals, where she was awarded the Jeune Critique Prize.
Since 2022, Anna is a scholar of the A.G. Leventis Foundation.
LIMASSOL MUNICIPAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTERA (LiMSO)
Studying the cultural flourishing of Limassol during the second half of the 20th century, one can identify, among many other initiatives and successes within the local context, efforts to create and maintain a chamber orchestra based on European standards.
October 22, 2019 marks a milestone, as following continuous discussions with active citizens of Limassol, the Limassol Municipal Chamber Orchestra held its first concert. The event was organized by the Municipality of Limassol and was dedicated to the memory of Solon Michaelides, conducted by Mikis Michaelides.
The continued establishment and consolidation of the orchestra as a permanent professional ensemble with a steady artistic presence and evolution is impressive. In recent years, the orchestra has performed initially as a string ensemble, with productions such as From Darkness to Freedom and Hymns of Angels in Human Rhythms. Later, it evolved into a symphonic orchestra, participating in productions like Zorba, Axion Esti, Symphonic Rembetiko, as well as operas such as Cavalleria Rusticana and Madame Butterfly. At the same time, it stood out with its symphonic tribute to Nikolaos Oikonomou and its established Christmas Gala Concerts.
All of these productions bring a fresh dynamic and demonstrate the orchestra's determination for further development, establishing it as an integral pillar of the cultural landscape of Cyprus.
