Prodromos Symeonidis – 2006

Ever since winning seven prizes at the Concours Olivier Messiaen piano contemporain 2003 in Paris and the International piano competition of Orleans 2006, Prodromos Symeonidis has gained worldwide recognition as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music and classical music in general. His playing has elicited enthusiasm and praise from some of the world’s top musicians and critics… “un grand artiste”, “un roi du piano” (Yvonne Loriod Messiaen), “an outstanding technique and a superb musical sensitivity” (Kent Nagano), “d’une maîtrise époustouflante” (ConcertoNet), “geistig wie manuell eindringliches Spiel”, “außerordentlich anschlagsvariabel” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Prodromos Symeonidis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1972. Apart from music, composition and the piano, which were his constant companions from early childhood, he also had a great fondness for mathematics and astronomy, which were later on combined with a love for the cinema. As a youth, he won many prizes at national and international contests for mathematics, including a bronze medal at the 30th International Mathematical Olympiad in 1989. In 1990, he moved to Germany where he pursued and completed his piano studies in Munich ad at the Musikhochschulen of Cologne and Berlin under Michael Endres, Karin Merle, Arbo Valdma and Georg Sava. Besides soloistic piano, he studied instrumental pedagogy and participated in composition seminars under Krzysztof Meyer and Walter Zimmermann. In addition to his academic studies, he also worked in Paris and Vienna with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Claude Helffer and Dimitri Bashkirov.

His international piano competition successes have led to concerts in many famous halls throughout the world like the Konzerthaus and Philharmonie in Berlin, Sendesaal Bremen, Philharmonie Essen, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Opéra National and Opéra Comique de Paris, Arsenal de Metz, Seoul Arts Center and Oriental Arts Center and He Luting Hall in Shanghai.

He has recorded works by Beethoven, Chopin, Hindemith, Ravel, Messiaen and many contemporary composers for the German radios SWR2, Radio Bremen and the French France musique and RCF Orléans. He has further recorded six CDs for the German label Telos Music, which were highly praised by the international press like FAZ, Fanfare, Pizzicato, Piano News, ResMusica and ConcertoNet. Aside from his activities as an interpreter, Symeonidis is also composer and teacher. In 2008, he founded together with pianist and conductor Ya-ou Xie the internationally active ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion, of which he is since then the artistic director.

His soloistic and chamber music pieces had a great success in Germany and France. He often gives teaching concerts (“concerts-lectures”), as “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” by Messiaen or complete piano pieceso by Maurice Ohana. In 2008, he is a teaching member of the contemporary music centre “Acanthes” in Metz.

Source: Prodromos Symeonidis official website

Awards:

• Special Distinction Prize “Ricardo Viñes”
• Special Distinction Prize “Maurice Ohana”
• Special Distinction Prize “Nadia Boulanger”