Wednesday, December 24, 2025

18 December 2025 Paphos: A Unique Christmas Concert

 


Adding to our list of concerts around the world, this one sounded intriguing, so we booked it.  A cello and piano duet (Raphaela Gromes & Julian Riem)had teamed up with a saxophone quartet (Signum) and were touring together.  The selection of songs that they performed could be called eclectic.  It ranged from classical, Chopin, to jazz, Gershwin, to rock, Elton John and AC/DC, to traditional Christmas fare, Tchaikovsky, Irving Berlin and more.  Since there are no pieces that have been written specifically for a piano, cello and four saxophones, all of the music that they played together had to be arranged specifically for this group.  The piano player, Julian Riem, did all of the arrangement for the tour.  They played all together, and separately as a duet, as a quartet and as a sextet.  As the concert shifted to Christmas tunes, the Paphos children's choir came out and sang along.  The only hiccup was the starting time.  It was due to start at 8 PM, but they did not even open the doors will 7:50.  Perhaps they wanted more people to see the art, perhaps something else delayed the start.  As the MC came out she was heckled by someone in the crowd yelling "You are 20 minutes late!"  We did not care, it was fun people watching while we waited for this fantastic show.


The concert hall is located across from the modern bus stop


It is a very pretty building


This painting is branch forward


The lost umbrella 


A treasure box


This cat is staying warm


Lingering in the art show area waiting for the doors to be opened


The doors are finally open just as the show is about to start


Folks filter in slowly


Our side is still empty


It takes nearly a half hour for the people to finally file in


The program


The list of songs


Empty stage 


Populated stage and Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue!


The two acts met in Munich




Lots of great music


We really enjoyed ourselves



I used my Meta RayBan glasses to take the pictures


A costume change for the Christmas section



Festive and an opera star guest appearance


This little girl in the front struck a pose!




It has been 3 years and 196 days since we began our Migration