STEFANOS TSIALIS WAS THE CHIEF CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE ATHENS STATE ORCHESTRA FROM 2014 TO 2020
In his six years in office, despite difficult circumstances, he managed to increase audiences by more than 60 per cent. For some seasons now, the ASO has been repeatedly collaborating with some of the most illustrious musicians of our time, thus demonstrating its strongly risen quality. These include Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph Eschenbach, Martha Argerich, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov and Elisabeth Leonskaya whereas concerts of the orchestra were regularly transmitted by the German Broadcasting Corporation. In 2020 and 2021 two recordings with works by Nikos Skalkottas performed by the ASO under his batton were released by NAXOS. In 2021 the Orchestra will appear at the “Enescu Festival” and at the “Festival Pianistico Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo”.
Stefanos Tsialis has worked with almost 90 orchestras in many EU countries as well as in Canada, the US, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand and others. They include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg Philharmonic, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Saarland State Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Massimo Bellini, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano and the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest.
In the current20/21 and 21/22 seasons, Stefanos Tsialis was reinvited to work with the Qatar Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphony, the Athens State Orchestra, the Saarland State Orchestra, the North German Philharmonic in Rostock, the Cracow Philharmonic and the Thuringian Philharmonic in Gotha-Eisenach. He will also be working with the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica Jalisco, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the Frederic Chopin Music Academy Symphony Orchestra. For several years, Stefanos Tsialis has also been involved in performing and recording film music. He speaks eight languages.
Stefanos Tsialis is regularly invited to perform with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony, the Athens State Orchestra, the Saarland State Orchestra and the Thuringian Philharmonic.
Stefanos Tsialis has collaborated with world famous soloists, such as Maxim Vengerov, Viktor Tretyakov, Martha Argerich, Igor Levit, Elisabeth Leonskaya, Anatol Ugorsky, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Geringas, Uto Ughi, Petra Lang and Igor Oistrakh.
He was born as the son of a danish mother and a greek father in Hermoupolis (Greece) in 1964. After studying piano at Thessalonica New Conservatory and musicology at Copenhagen University, he went on to graduate with distinction from Vienna Academy of Music as a conductor and répétiteur, and attended masterclasses with, amongst others, Leonard Bernstein, Vaclav Neumann and Rolf Reuter.
After his first engagement as assistant conductor and director of studies at Meiningen State Theatre, in 1996 Stefanos Tsialis received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Foundation. From 1997 to 2004, he was chief conductor of the Central German Chamber Philharmonic, while from 2001 to 2004 he was also permanent guest conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently returned to Meiningen State Theatre as First Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director from 2005 until 2009. From 2009 to 2013, he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Thuringia Philharmonic in Gotha whereas from 2015 till 2019 he was its permanent guest conductor.
In his operatic work, Stefanos Tsialis has collaborated with directors such as Peter Konwitschny, August Everding and Christine Mielitz. Developing a repertoire of 60 works, he has conducted a host of operas including Elektra, Salome, Wozzeck, Jenufa and Mona Lisa.
In 1995 he conducted the German premiere of Mikis Theodorakis’s opera Medea in Meiningen. This was to be the start of a long working association with the composer. Today, Stefanos Tsialis is regarded as one of the leading interpreters in the world of his countryman’s work.
Stefanos Tsialis has performed at many prestigious festivals, such as the Flanders Festival, the Handel Festival in Halle, the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen, the Athens Festival, the ‘Braunschweig Classix’ Festival, the Lisbon-Estoril-Festival and the Hamburg Music Festival.
Stefanos Tsialis has recorded CDs for the NAXOS, Genuin and Centaur labels. He has also appeared in television and radio recordings for German public broadcasters ARD, Deutschland Radio Kultur, MDR and NDR as well as broadcasters in Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Romania and South Africa.
