Music Recital in London
UPCOMING EVENT | 14 August 2026 18:00 - 14 August 2026 20:00
Join us for an evening of music with Manos Charalabopoulos (2009, Music), an award-winning Greek-British composer and pianist whose work has been performed across the UK, Greece, France, Germany and Brazil. The recital will be kindly hosted by Michael Kennard (1969, Classics) at the Concert Artistes’ Association, a distinguished private members’ club for entertainment professionals in the heart of London. Whether you come on your own or with family and friends, this promises to be a relaxed and enjoyable evening of exceptional music in the company of fellow Pembroke alumni and guests.
Programme
April 1838 — Robert Schumann is twenty-eight, deeply in love and secretly engaged to Clara Wieck, the daughter of his former piano teacher, who fiercely opposes their relationship. Robert composes a new cycle of piano pieces — supposedly in just four days — mirroring his emotional alternation between "depression and rapture". He borrows the name Kreisleriana from E.T.A. Hoffmann's Fantasiestücke, in reference to the literary work's temperamental protagonist, Kapellmeister Kreisler.
December 1909 — Claude Debussy is forty-seven, living in Paris with his second wife Emma Bardac and their young daughter Chou-Chou, burdened by debt and a failing marriage. He has spent years wrestling free of Wagner's overwhelming influence, searching for a musical language that suggests rather than states, that opens doors and invites reflection. At the peak of his powers, he composes two dozen preludes for piano, each inscribed with a postscript but no title. The postscript for one of them may have been inspired by a scene depicted on the label of a wine bottle — "...les collines d'Anacapri..."
Summer 2018 — I am twenty-seven, living in Manchester, happily married and desperately trying to complete my PhD thesis portfolio. Creatively, I have been as dry as the desert for almost two years, having become saturated by the study of new music. I return to the piano — a source of musical comfort I have long shunned in my search for new possibilities — and ask myself: "If the piano is my voice, how do I recite a poem?"
Three pieces, three moments in time, three distinct ways of sowing meaning into sound through the agency of words. Schumann's title and letters codify a projection of the temperamental Romantic genius, keen to direct our reading toward the construction of a mythical identity. Debussy, by contrast, aligns himself firmly with the suggestive aesthetic of fin-de-siècle Symbolism — opening doors, inviting associations. Both place the music before the words, even where the boundary between the two is not clear cut. My own work places words at the very centre: these are recitations of actual poems, delivered through the figurative voice of the piano. All meaning is derived directly from those poems, whose musical qualities are augmented while their verbal dimension is withheld—the space previously occupied by words, now yours to fill.
Indeed, meaning is made only partly on the encoding side. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall argued that the moment of decoding — the receiver's translation of a message into meaning — is just as determining as the moment of encoding. Sound becomes music no sooner than the listener sows meaning within it. Through the agency of our memory and imagination, music has the power to be whatever we need it to be: an anchor or a pair of wings, grounding body, mind and soul one moment and taking us on a journey the next. This is the gift of music — and in times as precarious as ours, it is one to be treasured. I invite you today to make meaning with me—to make music.
Bio
Manos Charalabopoulos is a Greek-British pianist, composer, and educator based in Athens. A versatile artist with a global perspective and deep ties to Latin America, his work balances classical tradition and innovation, within a broader context of cross-cultural dialogue.
At the age of fifteen, Manos gave his debut recital at Deree — The American College of Greece, shortly before receiving a scholarship to study at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. By eighteen, Manos had won top prizes in competitions such as the Filon Panhellenic Piano Competition (1st Prize), Evangelia Tjiarri International Piano Competition (2nd Prize), and EPTA UK Piano Competition (1st Prize).
He continued his studies at Oxford (BA in Music), Bristol (MA in Composition) and La Schola Cantorum (Paris). In 2020, he earned his doctorate from King’s College London, studying under Sir George Benjamin and Silvina Milstein.
With over two hundred performances to date, Manos has appeared as a soloist at prestigious venues like St Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), and the British Ambassador’s Residence in Paris, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and ERT’s Third Programme.
In 2019, he released his debut album, Espelho Duplo—Double Mirror, featuring the piano works of Brazilian composer André Luiz Machado. He is currently preparing his second album of original compositions for solo piano, alongside developing a performance format that blends music, storytelling, and audience interaction.
In parallel to his work as a performer, Manos has been active as a composer since 2012, with works presented across the UK, Greece, France, Germany, Brazil, and Colombia, often at contemporary music festivals like KlangZeit (Münster), Festival Musica (Strasbourg), Presteigne Festival (Wales), and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. His accolades include the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize and the 2019 Ivan Juritz Modernist Prize, which included a residency at Cove Park (Scotland). He has collaborated with ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Hezarfen Ensemble, Bristol Ensemble, and the Athens Bridge Quartet.
As an educator, Manos has worked with over 150 students privately over the last decade, as well as having taught in various capacities at King’s College London, Chetham’s School of Music, Beaudesert Park School, and—since 2025—Deree — The American College of Greece, where he is currently Assistant Professor of Music. In 2026, Manos also took up the role of Music Ambassador for Pembroke College, Oxford.
Music Recital in London
UPCOMING EVENT | 14 August 2026 18:00 - 14 August 2026 20:00
Join us for an evening of music with Manos Charalabopoulos (2009, Music), an award-winning Greek-British composer and pianist whose work has been performed across the UK, Greece, France, Germany and Brazil. The recital will be kindly hosted by Michael Kennard (1969, Classics) at the Concert Artistes’ Association, a distinguished private members’ club for entertainment professionals in the heart of London. Whether you come on your own or with family and friends, this promises to be a relaxed and enjoyable evening of exceptional music in the company of fellow Pembroke alumni and guests.
Programme
April 1838 — Robert Schumann is twenty-eight, deeply in love and secretly engaged to Clara Wieck, the daughter of his former piano teacher, who fiercely opposes their relationship. Robert composes a new cycle of piano pieces — supposedly in just four days — mirroring his emotional alternation between "depression and rapture". He borrows the name Kreisleriana from E.T.A. Hoffmann's Fantasiestücke, in reference to the literary work's temperamental protagonist, Kapellmeister Kreisler.
December 1909 — Claude Debussy is forty-seven, living in Paris with his second wife Emma Bardac and their young daughter Chou-Chou, burdened by debt and a failing marriage. He has spent years wrestling free of Wagner's overwhelming influence, searching for a musical language that suggests rather than states, that opens doors and invites reflection. At the peak of his powers, he composes two dozen preludes for piano, each inscribed with a postscript but no title. The postscript for one of them may have been inspired by a scene depicted on the label of a wine bottle — "...les collines d'Anacapri..."
Summer 2018 — I am twenty-seven, living in Manchester, happily married and desperately trying to complete my PhD thesis portfolio. Creatively, I have been as dry as the desert for almost two years, having become saturated by the study of new music. I return to the piano — a source of musical comfort I have long shunned in my search for new possibilities — and ask myself: "If the piano is my voice, how do I recite a poem?"
Three pieces, three moments in time, three distinct ways of sowing meaning into sound through the agency of words. Schumann's title and letters codify a projection of the temperamental Romantic genius, keen to direct our reading toward the construction of a mythical identity. Debussy, by contrast, aligns himself firmly with the suggestive aesthetic of fin-de-siècle Symbolism — opening doors, inviting associations. Both place the music before the words, even where the boundary between the two is not clear cut. My own work places words at the very centre: these are recitations of actual poems, delivered through the figurative voice of the piano. All meaning is derived directly from those poems, whose musical qualities are augmented while their verbal dimension is withheld—the space previously occupied by words, now yours to fill.
Indeed, meaning is made only partly on the encoding side. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall argued that the moment of decoding — the receiver's translation of a message into meaning — is just as determining as the moment of encoding. Sound becomes music no sooner than the listener sows meaning within it. Through the agency of our memory and imagination, music has the power to be whatever we need it to be: an anchor or a pair of wings, grounding body, mind and soul one moment and taking us on a journey the next. This is the gift of music — and in times as precarious as ours, it is one to be treasured. I invite you today to make meaning with me—to make music.
Bio
Manos Charalabopoulos is a Greek-British pianist, composer, and educator based in Athens. A versatile artist with a global perspective and deep ties to Latin America, his work balances classical tradition and innovation, within a broader context of cross-cultural dialogue.
At the age of fifteen, Manos gave his debut recital at Deree — The American College of Greece, shortly before receiving a scholarship to study at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. By eighteen, Manos had won top prizes in competitions such as the Filon Panhellenic Piano Competition (1st Prize), Evangelia Tjiarri International Piano Competition (2nd Prize), and EPTA UK Piano Competition (1st Prize).
He continued his studies at Oxford (BA in Music), Bristol (MA in Composition) and La Schola Cantorum (Paris). In 2020, he earned his doctorate from King’s College London, studying under Sir George Benjamin and Silvina Milstein.
With over two hundred performances to date, Manos has appeared as a soloist at prestigious venues like St Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), and the British Ambassador’s Residence in Paris, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and ERT’s Third Programme.
In 2019, he released his debut album, Espelho Duplo—Double Mirror, featuring the piano works of Brazilian composer André Luiz Machado. He is currently preparing his second album of original compositions for solo piano, alongside developing a performance format that blends music, storytelling, and audience interaction.
In parallel to his work as a performer, Manos has been active as a composer since 2012, with works presented across the UK, Greece, France, Germany, Brazil, and Colombia, often at contemporary music festivals like KlangZeit (Münster), Festival Musica (Strasbourg), Presteigne Festival (Wales), and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. His accolades include the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize and the 2019 Ivan Juritz Modernist Prize, which included a residency at Cove Park (Scotland). He has collaborated with ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Hezarfen Ensemble, Bristol Ensemble, and the Athens Bridge Quartet.
As an educator, Manos has worked with over 150 students privately over the last decade, as well as having taught in various capacities at King’s College London, Chetham’s School of Music, Beaudesert Park School, and—since 2025—Deree — The American College of Greece, where he is currently Assistant Professor of Music. In 2026, Manos also took up the role of Music Ambassador for Pembroke College, Oxford.