Apostolos Kouroupakis
A grand piano is heading high into the Troodos mountains, where music will meet nature beneath the open sky.
The Avantgarde Cultural Foundation is continuing its successful The Piano Tour series, with its next concert set to take place on Monday, Aug. 31, at one of Cyprus’ most important centers for environmental education and natural heritage: the A.G. Leventis Troodos Botanic Garden.
There, talented Cypriot pianist Nikoleta Savvidou will present a program highlighting music’s timeless ability to engage with the natural world.
Savvidou will offer an experience in which the piano is not treated as something foreign to nature, but as a natural extension of it. In a setting devoted to preserving, understanding and respecting Cyprus’ plant life, music takes on a different dimension, inviting the audience to listen to the rhythm of the landscape itself.
Surrounded by hundreds of plant species in a garden dedicated to protecting life and biodiversity, Savvidou’s performance will become another expression of creation, growth and harmony. Just as nature constantly evolves without losing its identity, music is renewed through every new interpretation. The result is an experience in which art and the environment coexist in harmony, with sound becoming part of the natural surroundings.
The Piano Tour
The Piano Tour is a unique concert series that redefines the public’s relationship with music by taking performances beyond conventional concert halls and into outdoor, unexpected and often hard-to-reach locations.
Each stop becomes an authentic artistic event, shaped by the interaction between the location, the performer, the repertoire and the audience.
The series has so far staged 29 concerts featuring more than 40 artists. In 2025, it was nominated for the International Music Council’s Music Rights Award.
The pianist
Nikoleta Savvidou is part of a new generation of Cypriot pianists building a strong international presence.
She holds a Master of Music in piano performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where she studied with distinguished pianist Donald Berman as a recipient of the Christopher Horner Endowed Scholarship.
She previously graduated summa cum laude from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she studied under Max Levinson and combined piano performance with creative entrepreneurship.
Savvidou has lived in Boston in recent years, developing her musical identity through performances, collaborations and artistic exchanges with musicians from around the world.
She has performed at major venues in Europe and the United States, including Sergei Rachmaninoff’s historic Villa Senar and the Spiegelsaal at Zurich Opera House, as part of celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the renowned Russian composer’s birth.
In 2023, she was selected as a Bergos AIR artist-in-residence. She has also developed a notable teaching career at music institutions in the United States, where she has had the opportunity to meet and work with leading artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Alan Menken, Melissa Errico and Ted Sperling.
A.G. Leventis Troodos Botanic Garden
The A.G. Leventis Troodos Botanic Garden is one of only three botanical gardens in Cyprus. It lies at an altitude of about 1,400 meters within Troodos National Forest Park, on the site of the former Amiantos mine.
It was created by the Department of Forests to protect, preserve and showcase Cyprus’ botanical heritage while helping restore one of the island’s most important former mining landscapes.
Work on the garden began in 2004, and it has been open to the public since 2010. It is a member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, the world’s largest network of botanical gardens, underlining its scientific and educational role internationally.
The garden is home to about 500 plant species, including common, rare and threatened varieties of Cypriot flora. They are displayed in themed sections featuring endemic Troodos plants, aromatic and traditional plants, an arboretum and lakeside vegetation.
Its visitors’ center, herbarium, educational facilities and telescope viewing point make it a unique place for research, education and recreation.
The garden lies within Troodos National Forest Park, which forms part of the European Natura 2000 network, as well as the Troodos Geopark, a member of UNESCO’s Global Geoparks Network since 2015.
The choice of the Troodos Botanic Garden as the latest stop on The Piano Tour carries particular symbolism. It is a place where Cyprus’ natural, geological and cultural heritage coexist and complement one another, creating the ideal setting for a musical experience celebrating harmony between people and nature.
Information
The recital will be livestreamed on the Avantgarde Cultural Foundation’s Facebook page, as are all performances in The Piano Tour series.
It will also remain permanently available on the foundation’s YouTube channel, making the performance accessible to a wider audience.
The Piano Tour concert at the A.G. Leventis Troodos Botanic Garden is supported by the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, Eurobank Cyprus and the Zorbas Group’s Pralina Experience.
It is being held under the auspices of the Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO, reflecting the series’ connection with initiatives that promote the protection, preservation and celebration of Cyprus’ natural and cultural heritage.
