2025 04 16 Easter Concert

Serious music today is both entirely open to influences from other musical genres and constantly in search of new forms of expression and aspects that will appeal to the broadest possible audience. The prominent Greek composer Dimitrios Skyllas draws his inspiration from the austere beauty of the Greek folk tradition, and from Epirote laments, in particular. In his Requiem (1985), Andrew Lloyd Webber, the British composer who has given the world such celebrated musicals as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats, achieves a singular but highly successful tonal blend of the lyrical style of the musical and the contemporary musical avant-garde. Under the baton of Giorgos Vranos, the magnificent symphonic sound the work demands will shine forth as it simultaneously plays on our heartstrings.


2025 04 11 Nikolai Lugansky in Beethoven's 4th piano concerto

There are some works that went beyond simply expressing their era and actually changed the course of musical history; without them, music would not only be poorer, it would be different, too. Without a shadow of a doubt, both works on the programme tonight belong to this category. The Rite of Spring marked the (scandalous!) birth of modernism, while Beethoven created a model in his Fourth Piano Concerto that later Romantic composers would follow—almost without exception—in works on a similarly grandiose scale. Nikolai Lugansky returns to Athens after his recent triumphant appearance with the Athens State Orchestra, promising moments of magic of the sort Loukas Karytinos has been treating audience to for decades with his electrifying interpretations.

19:30, free introductory speech for ticket holders

2025 03 31 Classical meets modern I

Konstantinos Terzakis, one of our most active and popular young Greek conductors, has already distinguished himself in demanding international competitions and appeared on the podium of important European orchestras. For this, his Athens State Orchestra debut, he will be conducting Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, a piece which starkly captures Scotland's grey, melancholy and often wild landscape and the range of emotions it gives rise to. We look forward with especial interest to the performance of the outstanding trumpet soloist Dimitris Gogas in the Divertimento by Charalambos Kanas, one of the finest Greek composers of our era, whose music combines the cerebral with the emotional in a clear and consistent way.


The winner of the Tchaikovsky Prize performs Dvořák's Cello Concerto

When the cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan took the first prize and gold medal at the 14th Tchaikovsky Competition at the tender age of 22, it opened the doors wide for an international career as a soloist. Since then, the Armenian musician has truly excelled in collaborations with the world's greatest orchestras and musicians. The Athens State Orchestra is delighted to welcome him to Athens, and to accompany him in the most popular concerto for his instrument, the cello concerto by the Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák. The acclaimed conductor Miltos Logiadis marshals his long experience and profound knowledge to inform his interpretation of Mozart's celebrated 40th Symphony, a work that never gets old and remains a perfect model of classical balance and proportion, no matter how many times we hear it.

In memoriam
Soloist's participation to the concert has been provided with the kind grant of Alexandros Sofianos in memoriam of his father, Kostis Sofianos. Part of the revenue of the concert will be granted to the Kouloureion Philanthropic and Hospital "Παναγία Φανερωμένη" Foundation of Hydra.

19:30, free introductory speech for ticket holders


Julian Rachlin plays Dimitri Papadimitriou

Dimitris Papadimitriou is a composer who has been proven to move beyond and above stereotypes and all kinds of aesthetic categorizations. Multifaceted and restless, sensitive and visionary, he feels equally at home in the field of art lyrical singing, in film music and in spoken symphonic music; and it is precisely this breadth and his ability to creatively assimilate elements from different styles in his works that makes his music so interesting, original and above all sincere, with a captivating immediacy. Our very own esteemed conductor Georgios Balatsinos and Lithuanian violinist Julian Rachlin, musicians of international renown and deeply familiar with the music of today, promise dynamic readings of his works.


2025 03 08 Journey to the centre of Music - March

A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolism and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.


2025 03 07 Journey to the centre of Music - March

A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolism and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.


2025 02 27 Vadim Repin back with the Athens State Orchestra

2025 marks half a century since the death of Dmitri Shostakovitch, the greatest symphonist of the 20th century and a composer who imbued the modernism of his era with pure emotion and classical purity. These—and other—aspects of his music will be foregrounded to perfection by Vadim Repin, whom the great Yehudi Menuhin once declared "the most perfect violinist I have ever heard"! For his part, Michał Nesterowicz, the Polish conductor much loved by Athenian audiences, will be focusing his customary care and attention on achieving an aesthetically flawless performance of Rachmaninoff's boldly exuberant Second Symphony—a work which delivers a resounding riposte to those who believe that the Russian composer begins and ends with his piano concertos.


Gala concert with Jonas Kaufmann

Arias and orchestral pieces from the Italian and German operatic repertoires

Gavrylyuk performs the Grieg Piano Concerto

Born in Ukraine, Alexander Gavrylyuk is an Australian pianist with an eclectic repertoire who knows how to get to the heart of a piece and perform it with fresh insights and--above all--an uncompromising daring. For those of you who have not yet heard him in action, prepare to hear Grieg's celebrated Concerto with its revelatory power revealed anew! The rapidly up-and-coming conductor and composer Ektoras Tartanis, who is participating in this concert as both maestro and composer, is gifted with comparable talents which have earned him universal acclaim in both roles. The work is performed by Dimitris Tiliakos, the Greek baritone with an international career, and the ASO's principal harpist, Gogo Xagara.

19:30, free introductory speech for ticket holders