Konstantinos Destounis

Konstantinos Destounis (b. 1991 in Athens) is regarded as one of the most prominent Greek artists of his generation. He is a prizewinner in many international piano competitions, most notably ‘Grand Prix Maria Callas’ in Athens, ‘Southern Highlands’ in Canberra, ‘Giorgos Thymis’ in Thessaloniki, and the Bremen European Piano Competition. As the winner of Greece’s national competition, he represented his country at ‘Eurovision Young Musicians’ in Vienna. His numerous awards also include the ‘Gina Bachauer’ Piano Prize of the Spanish association ‘World in Harmony,’ the ‘Young Artist Prize’ of the Greek Drama and Music Critics Association, the UNESCO Gold Medal, and the ‘Mykoniou’ Prize of the Academy of Athens (Order of Letters and Fine Arts).

His performing career has led him to prestigious venues across Europe and Australia, such as Royal Albert Hall and St. John’s Smith Square in London, Opera ‘La Fenice’ in Venice, Llewellyn Hall in Canberra, Glocke Saal in Bremen, Athens Megaron, and Thessaloniki Megaron. As a soloist, he has performed with the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Greek Radio National Orchestra, Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach, UK Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, Murcia Symphony Orchestra, and many more orchestras.

Konstantinos Destounis has been awarded the title ‘Doctor of Music’ (DMus) by the Royal College of Music in London for his research: ‘Theodore Antoniou’s solo piano works in the context of Greek contemporary piano repertoire: a performer’s approach.’ His world première recording of Antoniou’s complete piano works has been released by Naxos’ series ‘Grand Piano’ and has received praising reviews by various music journals, including ‘Gramophone.’

Konstantinos studied the piano with Agathe Leimoni at the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens and with Igor Petrin at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece. He also received a Master’s degree at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (Prof. R. Plagge), an Artist Diploma (Prof. D. Alexeev, I. Jones, A. Zolinsky), and a Doctoral Degree at the Royal College of Music in London. He has been a scholar of the Onassis Foundation and the Thessaloniki Friends of Music Association.

During 2017/18 and 2018/19 he taught in the Bachelor program of the Royal College of Music in London. In September 2019, he returned to Greece. He teaches piano at the Athens Conservatoire and the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece (Department of Music Science & Art).

Source: Destounispiano.com