Giorgos Koumendakis

Giorgos Koumendakis is one of the most renowned names of the new generation of Greek composers. In 1992, he received the Prix de Rome scholarship, whereas in the following year he was a composer-in-residence at the French Academy in Rome (Villa Medicis). In 1994, he was honored with the “Nikos Kazantzakis” award. From 1998 to 2000, he worked as a composer-in-residence for Clio Gould and the BT Scottish Ensemble, with the kind support of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust.

His works have been presented worldwide in more than 400 performances, in concert venues like the “Olivier Messiaen” Salle, Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Teatro La Fenice, Alte Oper, “Purcell” Room, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ in Amsterdam, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall, or the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. His work has also been performed in international festivals, such as the Venice Biennale, the International Music Weeks in Orleans, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010), the World Music Days – in Germany (1987), Hong Kong (1988), and Oslo (1990) – the Frankfurter Feste, the New Music Festival in Middelburg, the Lecce Festival, the Ypre Guitar Festival in Belgium (2002), the New Music Days in Zurich, the Aix-en-Provence Festival “Présences” (1992, 2004 – Radio France), the Cultural Year of Greece in China (2007–2008), the XIX Forfest Festival in Czech Republic (2008), and the “Milano Meets Greeece” Festival (2009), among others.

His compositions have been performed by important music ensembles: Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Prism Quartet, Accentus/Axe 21, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Arraymusik, BT Scottish, Composers, dissonArt, Divertimento, Ensemble InterContemporain, Sentieri Selvaggi, Nash and Hong Kong Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Leonardo Quartet, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Camerata in Odessa, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of Colours, the Athens Camerata, the Greek National Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, ånd the Greek National Opera. Many famous conductors have worked on performances of his music, including Mathias Bamert, Martin Brabbins, Olivier Cuendet, Christian Eggen, Sandro Gorli, Christopher Warren-Green, Paul Chiang, James Judd, Henry Kucharzyk, Tan Lihua, Diego Masson, Ingo Metzmacher, Peter Wiegold, Gunther Schuller, Arturo Tamayo, Myron Michailides, Miltos Logiadis, Alexandros Myrat, Nikos Tsouchlas, and Alkis Baltas.