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The Athens born Soprano/Cellist Lydía Zervanos stems from a Greek opera singer family. From a young age she was immersed in music taking piano, cello and later on voice lessons. Her extensive collaboration as a cellist with numerous renowned professional ensembles such as The Athens Youth Symphony Orchestra, Camerata BIOS, Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, Greek-Turkish Youth Orchestra, The World Orchestra, Orchestra of Northern New York, the Cellissimo and Fior de la Piedra ensembles, has greatly influenced her musical ability.
She made her operatic debut with the Crane Opera Ensemble in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, as well as in concert with the Orchestra of the Athens University. Since then she has repeatedly collaborated with organizations and orchestras such as The Beggars Operas, Neuköllner Oper, Greek National Opera, Athens Festival, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, International Festival of the Aegean, Alltagsoper Berlin, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, Athens Sinfonietta and Greek National Orchestra, undertaking leading roles and premieres of works. These are, a. o.: Cherubini’s Medea (Glauce), Goyós’s New Greece: The Making Of-, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nikolai and Missa in Tempore Belli, Kalomiris’s Folk Songs, Kypourgos’s Beware! The Prince is Messy (Courtlady), Lialios’s Requiem, Minakakis In the World’s Neighborhoods, Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) and Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rameu/Vinje’s Platée: Ein Begehren (Thalie/Juno), Rossopoulos's The Wax Doll (Bibika), Sakellaridis’s The Possessed (Loula), Samaras’s Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (Belle-Isle), and Verdi/Goyós’s Yasou, Aida! (Elpida-Aida).
Her love of art song has led to the presentation of personal recitals in Germany, Greece, Switzerland and the USA, performing art songs and song cycles by Barber, Busoni, Brahms, Copland, Duparc, Dvořak, Fauré, Juon, Kalomiris, Konstantinidis, Lambelet, Mitropoulos, Schumann, Pallantios, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Samaras, Schönberg, Spathis, Weill, Wolf, Xirellis, among others.
A special place in Ms. Zervanos’s activity holds the publication of her book Singing in Greek: A Guide to Greek Lyric Diction & Vocal Repertoire (Rowman & Littlefield, ©2015) with which she wishes to enable access to the Greek language and help promote the beautiful Greek vocal repertoire.
Ms. Zervanos began her vocal studies with George Zervanos and continued with her current teacher Martha Arapis. She has participated in masterclasses with renowned singers Stephanie Blythe, Sylvia Greenberg, Barbara Daniels and Cheryl Studer among others and has taken a series of lessons with KS Dagmar Schellenberger. She holds cello and voice degrees with Honors from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, USA (classes of Jill Pearon, voice & Mathias Wexler, cello), the Classical & Modern Music Conservatory (Marina Kislitsina, cello), the Musical Horizons Conservatory in Athens, Greece (Martha Arapis, voice), as well as a Master's degree in Music Education from the European University of Cyprus.
Her studies have been supported by merit-based scholarships from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation and the Onassis Foundation.
She made her operatic debut with the Crane Opera Ensemble in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, as well as in concert with the Orchestra of the Athens University. Since then she has repeatedly collaborated with organizations and orchestras such as The Beggars Operas, Neuköllner Oper, Greek National Opera, Athens Festival, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, International Festival of the Aegean, Alltagsoper Berlin, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, Athens Sinfonietta and Greek National Orchestra, undertaking leading roles and premieres of works. These are, a. o.: Cherubini’s Medea (Glauce), Goyós’s New Greece: The Making Of-, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nikolai and Missa in Tempore Belli, Kalomiris’s Folk Songs, Kypourgos’s Beware! The Prince is Messy (Courtlady), Lialios’s Requiem, Minakakis In the World’s Neighborhoods, Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) and Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rameu/Vinje’s Platée: Ein Begehren (Thalie/Juno), Rossopoulos's The Wax Doll (Bibika), Sakellaridis’s The Possessed (Loula), Samaras’s Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (Belle-Isle), and Verdi/Goyós’s Yasou, Aida! (Elpida-Aida).
Her love of art song has led to the presentation of personal recitals in Germany, Greece, Switzerland and the USA, performing art songs and song cycles by Barber, Busoni, Brahms, Copland, Duparc, Dvořak, Fauré, Juon, Kalomiris, Konstantinidis, Lambelet, Mitropoulos, Schumann, Pallantios, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Samaras, Schönberg, Spathis, Weill, Wolf, Xirellis, among others.
A special place in Ms. Zervanos’s activity holds the publication of her book Singing in Greek: A Guide to Greek Lyric Diction & Vocal Repertoire (Rowman & Littlefield, ©2015) with which she wishes to enable access to the Greek language and help promote the beautiful Greek vocal repertoire.
Ms. Zervanos began her vocal studies with George Zervanos and continued with her current teacher Martha Arapis. She has participated in masterclasses with renowned singers Stephanie Blythe, Sylvia Greenberg, Barbara Daniels and Cheryl Studer among others and has taken a series of lessons with KS Dagmar Schellenberger. She holds cello and voice degrees with Honors from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, USA (classes of Jill Pearon, voice & Mathias Wexler, cello), the Classical & Modern Music Conservatory (Marina Kislitsina, cello), the Musical Horizons Conservatory in Athens, Greece (Martha Arapis, voice), as well as a Master's degree in Music Education from the European University of Cyprus.
Her studies have been supported by merit-based scholarships from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation and the Onassis Foundation.