Nicholas Spanos

A countertenor from Thessaloniki, Nicholas Spanos took his first lessons with Helen Lionna and Aris Christofellis, added diplomas in harmony and counterpoint at the city's New Conservatory, and went on to a master's degree in voice and opera performance at the University of Maryland with the soprano Linda Mabbs, later studying Lied and oratorio in Vienna with Charles Spencer. Monteverdi has been his territory — Nerone and Ottone in L'incoronazione di Poppea — together with Gluck's Orfeo, Britten's Oberon, and Handel's Tamerlano, Giulio Cesare and Filotete in Oreste. Greece's Association of Theatre and Music Critics named him young artist of the year, and he took first prize at the Techne national singing competition in Thessaloniki; recordings in which he sings have brought an Echo Klassik in 2008 and a Choc de Classica in 2012. He founded the Trissevjeni Kalokyri vocal ensemble in Thessaloniki and conducts it. In 2025 he sang with the Sofia Philharmonic in Sofia and in Skopje, on programmes shared with Ivo Yordanov and Ana Durlovski. At Maryland he worked with Leon Major as well, he took master classes with Kurt Equiluz, Delores Ziegler, Anna Tomowa-Sintow and Michael Chance, and the critics' award came in November 2002 with the Techne prize in 2006. He has toured with the Greek National Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Lorraine Opera and the Egyptian Opera, and sung with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Danish Radio Symphony. His albums include Moving Telemann in 2019 and a Vivaldi disc of Nisi Dominus and Stabat Mater in 2021.