World-acclaimed pianist Vitaly Pisarenko returns to Cyprus to mark the opening of the Pharos Arts Foundation 2026 season with a special recital for Nicosia’s music scene. Masterpieces from composers Schubert, Liszt, Wagner and Bellini will make up his repertoire for the January 29 concert at The Shoe Factory, filling the venue with timeless classical music pieces.

Pisarenko has been awarded in some of the most important piano competitions, including the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht and the Leeds International Piano Competition, acclaimed for his unusually soft touch, prodigious technique and captivating expressiveness.

The Ukrainian-born pianist has given recitals at prestigious venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and has appeared as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the KBS Symphony Orchestra, among others.

For the upcoming Nicosia recital, the pianist will bring to the limelight Schubert’s Four Impromptus D.935, written in the final year of the composer’s life and representing some of his most expansive writing for solo piano, along with two major virtuoso piano paraphrases by Liszt: Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Bellini’s Réminiscences de Norma, both exemplifying the composer’s role in reworking operatic drama and orchestral colour into large-scale pianistic masterpieces.

Vitaly Pisarenko

Piano recital by award-winning and acclaimed pianist. January 29. The Shoe Factory, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €20-25. Tel: 22-663871. www.pharosartsfoundation.org