Program:

Jean Langlais (1907-1991):
Double fantaisie pour deux organistes

Simon Johnson (b.1972):
'Wohl dem, der in Gottes Furcht steht'

Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925):
Scherzo in G minor (op.49 no. 2)

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924):
Fantasia and Toccata in D minor (Op. 57)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886):
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Ourania Gassiou is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Nicolas Kynaston. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ourania has performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe in recital series and major international festivals. She has also been a prize winner in the International Organ Competition of St. Maurice, Switzerland and in the First Mediterranean Piano Competition of Andros, Greece. In 2011 she was appointed Organist of the Athens Concert Hall in Greece and in 2021 she was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Ourania Gassiou is particularly interested in promoting the organ in her native Greece. She has commissioned music from Greek composers and created innovative projects which attract large audiences, establishing an increasingly prominent role for the organ in Greek musical culture.

Eleni Keventsidou was born in Athens and started playing the piano with Danae Stavraki and Kate Trulli at the Athens National Conservatory, where she graduated in 1995 with a unanimous First Prize. In 1998 she was awarded a three- year scholarship by the 'Friends of Music Society' to study the organ with Nicolas Kynaston at the Athens Concert Hall. She continued her studies as an Alexander S. Onassis Foundation scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London and graduated from the Postgraduate Performance Course in 2004 with a Distinction. She was awarded the 'Margaret and Sydney Lovett Organ Prize', the 'United Music Publishers Ensemble Prize' (London, 2004) and the Artistic Director's Prize at Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition in Kaliningrad in 2007. Eleni has performed as a soloist and ensemble player in major festivals in Greece, Cyprus, Romania, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Finland, Poland, USA, Australia. She has recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on behalf of the Royal Academy of Music and the Southwark and South London Organ Society. Her CD of Reger's Op. nos. 46, 60 and 73 has just been released by Selby Abbey Organ Masters. Eleni has also performed in the Royal Festival Hall Recital Series dedicated to the 70 years of the organ. Currently she teaches piano- and organ at Rugby School and organ at Eltham College. She has been the Organist of the French Protestant Church since September 2023. Eleni obtained her PhD in Organ Performance on a full studentship at Christ Church University, Canterbury in 2016.  She was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2023.