Dimitris Semsis

Born in Munich in 1959, Dimitris Semsis hails from a family with musical roots tracing back to the early 19th century. He learned violin from his father, Michalis Semsis, and later pursued further studies with educators Tibor Varga and Otto Büchner at the Music Academies of Detmold and Munich, as well as with Professor Alexander Pavlovich at the University of Belgrade. Semsis holds diplomas from the Athenaeum Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in London.

For two years, he was a member of the renowned Munich Bach Orchestra under the direction of Karl Richter. For a decade, he was the leader of the chamber orchestra “Greek Camerata,” founded by his father, Michalis Semsis, and subsequently became the leader of the “Camerata – Friends of Music Orchestra” at the Athens Concert Hall, a group he co-founded and served until June 1997.

Semsis has performed as a soloist with symphonic and chamber orchestras and has participated in chamber music concerts in Greece, France, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Serbia, England, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, the USA, and Romania.

He has conducted numerous special programs for young people and children both at the Athens Concert Hall and throughout Greece, from Thrace to Crete, as well as series of open lessons aimed at acquainting young people with classical music.

Semsis is a founding member of the Trio “Opus I,” with which he presents a variety of programs in Athens and many other Greek cities.

He is a violin professor at the “Musikoi Orizontes” Conservatory. From January 1999 until October 2003, he served as the leader of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. He then assumed the same position with the State Orchestra of Athens.

Dimitris Semsis plays a violin made by Lorenzo Storioni in Cremona in 1794. In 2011, he took over the artistic and musical direction of the “Friends of Music” Society Camerata Junior Orchestra, with which he has already appeared at the Athens Concert Hall and the “Lilian Voudouri” Great Music Library.

Source: Thessaloniki Concert Hall