It is with pride that we announce that our student, Christos Gionas-Kontos, after his audition in July, has been selected to perform at the National Piano Festival 2017. The National Piano Festival which will take place on November 18-26 at the Greek National Opera in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, is an important musical event organized by the Greek National Opera in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Piano Festival.
The festival’s rich program includes two concerts by the Piandaemonium ensemble consisting of six pianos and twelve pianists, five recitals of distinguished soloists with international careers, and concerts by such young artists as Christos.
Christos will perform Prelude in E major by C. Yonas, Scriabin’s Fantasie Op.28, 15 Little Variations by N. Skalkotas, and Chopin’s Ballade no.4, on Sunday, November 19 at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.
About Christos Gionas-Kontos
Christos Gionas-Kontos, born in 1993 in Athens, is a Hellenic American Educational Foundation alumnus, and a graduate of the International Baccalaureate Diploma program. In 2016 he received his Piano Diploma with Distinctions from the Musical Horizons Conservatory accompanied by Betty Gaitanou Barzouka. During his musical studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia, he studied piano with Stephen McIntyre.
Christos has actively participated in several Piano Masterclasses and has won First Prizes at the Unesco Panhellenic Piano Competition in 2016, and the X.O.N. National Piano Competition in 2015, as well as a Third Prize at the Dionysia Trust Piano Competition in 2011. He has given performances at the Greek Contemporary Music Festival 2017 in Chios as well as the Musical Meetings Festival 2017 in Naxos; he has also made pianistic appearances at the Michalis Kakogiannis Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of Tinos the Mozarteum Summer Academy, and the Lilian Voudouri Music Library.
Learn more about his upcoming performance here: http://bit.ly/2xP9SCy