Vania Papadimitriou
Vania Papadimitriou was born in Athens. She is a permanent member of the family of cellos in the Athens State Orchestra. She studied at the Athens Conservatory with Eleftherios Papastavros and earned her diploma in 1992 with honors. She was received for a master course at the Royal College of Music in London with A. Fleming.
She collaborated with the Orchestra of Colours, the ensembles of the Hellenic Radio Television, the Third Programme of the Hellenic Radio as member of the quartet “arco”, as Giorgos Tsagaris’s collaborator in live broadcasting of concerts in Greece and abroad, as well as with the ensemble “Athens Strings”. She has collaborated as soloist with the orchestra of the Athens Conservatory, the orchestra of the National Technical University of Athens and the orchestra of the Third Programme of the Hellenic Radio in Herodeion, performing Giorgos Tsagaris’s compositions. She gave recitals in KonzertHaus in Vienna, Austria, in Graz, Florence, Athens, in the state television and in various municipalities and cities in Greece. She served as Principal A in the family of cellos in the Piraeus Symphonic Orchestra and in the orchestra of the National Technical University of Athens. She has collaborated with the dearly departed pianist Maria Irinaiou. She taught in the Athens Conservatory from 1992 to 2012. She is teaching cello in the Attica Conservatory and in the Filippos Nakas Conservatory. She is a member of the trio “Diapason” with piano, as well as the quintet “Quintarco” of the Athens State Orchestra.
Marina Haralambides
Born in Athens. She studied violin at the Athens Conservatory and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, from which she received the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) in 1993 and graduated with the Professional Certificate (soloist diploma) the following year. During her studies in London she had the opportunity to give many recitals at the Academy and to participate in the String Orchestra, the Sinfonia Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra and the Manson Ensemble. She also attended violin master classes with famous soloists. In 1993 she was assistant violin teacher at the Junior Academy of Music. After her studies she gave several recitals in Athens, Piraeus and other Greek cities.
Marina has been a member of the Athens State Orchestra since 1996. She has also been a member of the National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, “Enarmonia” Orchestra, the Athens Chamber Orchestra, the Marsyas String Ensemble and other chamber music ensembles. She also served as a professor of violin and chamber music at the "F. Nakas" Conservatory. She has appeared on the Greek television (as presenter of "The World of Music" and "News and Notes") and has collaborated on recordings. She is a member of the piano trio "Callisto", the string trio "Morfes" of Athens State Orchestra, and string quintet “Quintarco” with which she has appeared in many schools and foundations, participating in the Orchestra's educational program titled "Right to Music".
Angelos Liakakis
Angelos Liakakis was born in Athens in 1980. He began taking cello lessons from Hristos Sfetsas and continued his studies as a scholar of the Onassis and Greek State Scholarships Foundations with Csaba Onczay, Leonid Gorokhov and Kim Bak Dinitzen.
He is a frequent performer, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He has given concerts and recitals in major festivals throughout Greece and abroad, having an extensive repertoire, which ranges from the baroque to the contemporary. His solo appearances include collaborations with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Bilkent
Symphony Orchestra, the Athens and Thessaloniki State Orchestras, the Greek National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Athens Camerata and Orchester 1756 among others.
He has been a member of the renowned New Hellenic Quartet, with which he gave numerous concerts and recorded extensively for the BIS, EMI, Naxos and Legend labels.
Angelos Liakakis is a co-principal cellist of the Athens State Orchestra. He is also a professor of cello and chamber music at the Athens Conservatoire and he is giving regular masterclasses at the Pelion Festival in Greece.