Kostis Kritsotakis

Composer

Kostis was born in Athens in 1973. He studied piano with M.Halleker and Theory and Composition with P.Koukos at the Athens Conservatory, graduating with the Highest Honours and First Prize. In 1992 he met Manos Hadjidakis and studied privately with him for two years.

From 1994 to 1997 he continued his studies in London, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (MMus in Composition) and at the Royal College of Music (PG Dip in Composition and MMus in Composition for Screen), having won a scholarship from the A.S.Onassis Foundation. His teachers included Edwin Roxburgh, Joseph Horovitz, and George Fenton. He attended also seminars with composers such as Tan Dun, Steve Reich, George Benjamin and Peter Maxwell Davies.

In 1994 he won the 1st prize at the M. Svoronos Competition of Athens. In the summer of 2002 he represented Greece in the 2nd Mediterranean Composers Conference in Estoril (Portugal) and in 2004 he was awarded a grant from the Meet the Composer organisation for performances of his ‘Mandolin Concerto’ in New York State. In June 2008 he was offered a residency at the Yaddo Artists’ Community (Saratoga Springs, NY).

His works have been commissioned and performed in Europe and the USA by the Greek National Radio Choir, Greek National Opera, Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colors, Camerata Orchestra/Armonia Atenea, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, New Paths in Music Ensemble (NY), Albany Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Concertante of Chicago, the Alhambra Orchestra of Miami and others.

His ballet, ‘Carmen’, which is based on Bizet’s music with original music added, was staged for two consecutive seasons (2007-9) at the State Opera of Karlsruhe.

In 2018, his one act opera, ‘Raven Revisited’, based on poetry by Edgar Allen Poe, was premiered in Athens. In 2022 Kostis presented his children’s opera ‘The Old Toys’ Revolution’, at the Greek National Opera.