Simos Papanas

Concertmaster of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra since 2003, Simos Papanas became the orchestra's artistic director in December 2022. He was born in Thessaloniki in 1979 and studied violin, baroque violin, composition and mathematics there before continuing at Oberlin College and Yale University — violin with Taras Gabora and Erick Friedman, baroque violin with Marilyn McDonald, composition with Christos Samaras. As a soloist he has appeared with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and in halls including Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein and the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic. He also composes; Sequenza for two violins (in distance) was written during the pandemic lockdown. His first violin teacher was Petar Arnaoudov, and his solo engagements extend to the Kammerorchester Basel, the Geneva Camerata, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, the Sofia Philharmonic and the Sofia Soloists. He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS and Centaur, and has played at the Verbier and Schleswig-Holstein festivals, the Athens Festival, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Semperoper and the Palau de la Musica Catalana.