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MARIOS IOANNOU - violin
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SAVVAS LAGOU - violin
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SORIN ALEXANDRU HORLEA - viola
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ROBERTAS GROD - cello
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Our story started with Sorin teaching violin Marios and Savvas in their teenage years, followed by their continuation of studies together in London, experimenting around Fusionia Duo, then their coming back to Cyprus as members of Cyprus Symphony Orchestra beside their teacher. The principal cellist of the same orchestra, Jakub Otcenasek, joined them as a founder member for a year, then Robertas, who luckily lives and works in Cyprus, replaced him.
​In the end of January 2019 we had our first concert, despite the fact that Marios was still in the army. The concert was held in Kasteliotissa Medieval Hall Nicosia, where we played Mozart and Mendelssohn. In 2019 we composed our first folk-classical piece named Cypriot Suite, based on Cypriot famous folk themes and Byzantine themes. In September same year we were invited to Kypria International Festival. Then the restrictions of next years were unfortunately very counterproductive for a newly formed string quartet... Despite that, we managed to write our second piece named Epirus Suite, based on themes and musical motifs from Greece, and to enlarge our classical repertoire quite a bit. Meanwhile we established a good relation with most artists and cultural organisations of the island, having numerous wonderful collaborations. In April 2024 we published our debut album - Enarxis - sponsored by the Youth Organisation of Cyprus.
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The members of Fusionia String Quartet share the love for all musical genres. Is the love for that ancient power of the empirical human, most honest, most sincere, natural music creativity which lives in the folk music. Also the love for the spontaneity and freedom found in modern pop and jazz music. Of course the love for the huge inheritance and development of the human spirit which is in the classical music field, better named - the cultivated music. Nor the less the love for all the experiments and all edges found in musical avangarde ... But the indescribable seed of beauty that hides in plain sight and is not very explored at the moment, stays exactly at the cross between all these forms and contents. Our purpose is to bring that beauty to life through the FUSION of all these loves put together. We named that - FUSIONIA - because is the personification of that still very young and very delicate, very innocent type of beauty...
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Marios Ioannou began violin lessons with Sorin Alexandru Horlea under the supervision of Professor Matheos Kariolou at age of 11 in 2006. In 2009 he studied at the Pancyprian Gymnasium and Music school of Nicosia which lasted for 3 years. He studied Music at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under the supervision of the Professor Andrew Sherwood and Boris Brovtsyn and he had his MA at Royal Academy of Music under the Prof. Mateja Marinkovic and Jack Liebeck. He is qualified violin teacher (LTCL) from Trinity Laban since May 2016. Marios is a member of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra since 2012, a private violin teacher since 2013 and principal of 2nd violin in Cyprus Chamber Orchestra since 2016. He has played in different orchestras and he has participated in a number of masterclasses.​​
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Savvas Lagou was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, in 1991. He began violin lessons at the age of 9 at the annex of the Conservatoire of East Attica in Larnaca where he graduated in 2009. At the age of 19 Savvas became a student of Sorin Alexandru Horlea who was his major influence as a musician and violinist. After studying with Magdalena Filipczak for one year, Savvas secured various scholarships for his Bachelor studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance starting in 2013. During his time at Trinity Laban he studied with Andrew Sherwood, and had master classes with Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay and Remus Azoitei. In April 2014 Savvas performed as a soloist with Somerset Youth Symphony Orchestra and in May with Cyprus Symphony Orchestra in Larnaca and Nicosia. Savvas continued his studies in 2016 as an MA student at the Royal Academy of Music in London under Mateja Marinkovic and Jack Liebeck, graduating with distinction, and has received coaching in chamber music from the Doric string quartet and Levon Chilingirian. Savvas is currently a full time member of the 2nd violins of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and also co-leader in the 1st violins of the newly formed Cyprus Chamber Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Fusionia String Quartet, formed in 2019, with which he has performed at the Kypria International Festival in September 2019. In 2021 Savvas performed as a soloist with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra Mozart's violin concerto no 3. It is also noted that Savvas participated in festivals of classical and world music in Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and London.
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Sorin Alexandru Horlea was born in Bucharest in 1975 and started the violin at the age of eight. He graduated from George Enescu Music High-School where he studied under maestro Octav Savitchi and Ciprian Porumbescu Music University where his professor was maestro Daniel Podlovschi. He took part in summer-courses with Viktor Pikaizen and Eugen Sarbu. In 1997 he won the third prize at the George Enescu Childhood Memories contest in Bucharest. During his university studies he played in the Radio Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra and in Bucharest Opera, but mainly in George Enescu Philharmonic. In 2000 he moved to Lebanon to fulfil his position in Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra, where he became the assistant concertmaster. He moved to Cyprus in 2005 and since then is a member of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. He is also working as an associate teacher of the Cyprus Youth Orchestra. Alongside his output as an orchestral musician, he is an active performer as a soloist and in various chamber groups throughout Europe and Middle East, playing not only classical but also jazz and folk music. He was a member of Cyprus String Quartet, and the folk band Danube Quartet. He regularly performs contemporary music as he is a resident musician at the Avaton Festival in Limassol, a member of the Chronos Ensemble, and of the Ensemble Cyclamen. In 2016, he started studying viola on his own in order to develop as a musician. In June 2019 he recorded together with the pianist Anita Tomasevich the album Nocturnal Ballads, consisting on 16 violin encores. Also in 2019, together with two of his former students he established the Fusionia String Quartet, where he plays viola. Anyone can listen to his concerts and recordings on his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/sorinestera
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Robertas Grod was born in 1991 in Lithuania. He studied in Vilnius at the Balys Dvarionas music school in the class of J. Veiveriene. He is a laureate prize winner of the Dvarionas and Urba music competitions in Lithuania. In 2010 Robert began his studies at the Moscow State Conservatory, under the tutorship of Natalia Shakhovskaya. In 2012 he won first prize in the Kozolupov competition in Moscow, and in 2016 he graduated from the conservatory with honours. Since then, he has been working in Nicosia for Cyprus Young String Soloists, which is a programme of the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, aiming at identifying children aged 3-18 who are very talented in music, and at providing them with instrument instruction at the highest possible level.