2022 12 30 New Year Musicals Gala
The New Year Gala, co-produced by the Athens Concert Hall and the Athens State Orchestra, has for years now been an integral part of the New Year celebrations—something like a coveted musical "good luck charm" for the New Year! This year, the Gala’s theme is musicals— that complex music theatre genre which combines theatre, dance and music and is loved like no other—especially the works from its Golden Age between the 1940s and 1960s. Under the baton of maestro Michalis Economou, selected singers with a proven track record in this unique and popular style sing melodies that left their mark on New York's Broadway and London's West End, promising to add glamour and joy to this New Year's Eve.
2022 12 16 Messiah - the baroque maestro Christian Curnyn
If there is one work in the European sacred music repertoire that is inextricably linked with the celebration of Christmas, it is surely Handel's Messiah. Since its premiere in 1742, the oratorio has remained Handel's best-known work and one of the absolute pinnacles of the baroque. The Athens State Orchestra is conducted by the British conductor Christian Curnyn, an expert in early music with few equals on the international music scene.
2022 12 09 100th anniversary of Iannis Xenakis' birth
The creative work of Iannis Xenakis left an indelible mark on the musical avant-garde of the latter half of the 20th century. One hundred years after his birth, the dynamic maestro Nikos Vasiliou honours the memory of the composer who transubstantiated his mathematical and architectural knowledge into truly novel, imaginative music. The concert presents two well-known symphonic works by Xenakis along with the Oiseaux exotiques by his mentor in Paris, Olivier Messiaen, and a work by the French avant-garde composer, Edgard Varèse. The guitarist Costas Cotsiolis brings the concert to a close with the sensual concerto by his great fellow guitarist, Leo Brouwer.
2022 12 02 Classical Vienna at the Athens State Orchestra
We often talk about the three great classicists, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but how often do we get a chance to hear works by all three in a single concert? With their talent and inspiring performances, conductor Ektoras Tartanis, renowned pianist and pedagogue Pavel Gililov, and his talented pupil Agapi Triantafyllidi remind us of all the many reasons these three composers remain timeless and relevant, their works ever-priceless.
2022 11 18 Titos Gouvelis in Brahms' First Concerto – A tribute to Dimitris Dragatakis
After his successful debut with the Athens State Orchestra last year, the up-and-coming Italian maestro Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli returns to the ASO podium this year for a performance of Mozart's light-hearted Notturno for four orchestras and the Sixth Symphony by Dimitris Dragatakis, one of our most inspired and restless post-war composers. The concert ends with Titos Gouvelis contributing the solo to Brahms' epic First Piano Concerto, a heartbreaking work that combines the robustness and grandeur of the symphony with the brilliance and extroversion of the concerto.
2022 11 11 1922
As painful as the destruction of Asia Minor’s Greek civilization was a century ago, the treasures of its tradition will live on for ever in our collective national memory. Of course, this inexhaustible Greek tradition inspired outstanding symphonic works by important Greek composers, including Manolis Kalomiris (who was born in Smyrna), Petros Petridis, Constantinos Kydoniatis, and our contemporary, the prolific Dimitris Marangopoulos. The maestro Miltos Logiadis will take the ASO and its audience on a fascinating musical journey to the point where the traditional and the scholarly, the national and the personal, meet.
2022 11 04 A perfume of 1830
Ivo Pogorelich belongs to the artists who create extreme feelings among the audience. There are auditors who are passionate with his daring artistic choices, while others are more reserved towards them; yet nobody can remain indifferent about his performances, way more when it is a great concerto such Second Concerto by the "poet of the piano", Frédéric Chopin, which accompanies the pianist ever since his early youth. Then the much sought-after French maestro Philippe Auguin leads the performance of one of the Romantic repertoire’s most iconic and evergreen works, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.
2022 10 21 Season Opening Concert
This season marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Athens State Orchestra. Over its eight decades of uninterrupted musical contributions as Greece’s primary symphonic ensemble, the ASO has dedicated itself to serving the masterpieces of the international and Greek symphonic repertoire. In this spirit, the season's opening concert includes a new work by the distinguished composer Dimitris Minakakis, along with two much-loved romantic works, by Bruch and Tchaikovsky, respectively. The soloist is the internationally renowned British violinist Daniel Hope, while the orchestra is conducted by its artistic director, Loukas Karytinos.
2022 10 15 Opera Gala with Lise Davidsen
The Norwegian soprano made a truly impressive entrance into the world of opera in 2015. Having won three international awards in major competitions, the doors of the world's greatest opera houses opened up before her, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Opera, and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Since then, her career has soared to still greater heights with successive appearances in key roles in major operas, solo participations in symphonic concerts with leading orchestras, and a multitude of recordings to her name. We look forward to admiring the diva, a new star in the musical firmament, live in Greece for the first time.
2022 10 07 Towards the future
Throughout its long history, the Athens State Orchestra has supported remarkable young musicians by inviting them to perform with it. Many names that have risen to the very top of the Greek and/or international music scene have graced the orchestra's concerts with their talent at an early age. Honouring this tradition, three promising young soloists who excelled in our recent competition each perform a concerto under the baton of a maestro with whom Greek audience are very familiar, the Canadian conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe. We are sure they have a bright artistic future ahead of them.