Vassilis Christopoulos has established himself as one of Greece’s most talented and inspiring conductors.  In May 2011 he became the youngest conductor to be appointed Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra. He is also Chief Conductor of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra in Constance, a position he has held since September 2005.

Vassilis Christopoulos has conducted prestigious orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin and Czech Radio Symphony Orchestras. He makes his debut with the NDR Radiophilharmonie this season.

As a regular guest conductor of the Greek National Opera Vassilis has conducted Tosca, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Traviata, The Mother’s Ring by Manolis Kalomiris, the Greek premières of Handel’s Serse and Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso, as well as the world première of Lysistrata by Mikis Theodorakis.  He has also conducted Rigoletto and Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, and in Constance (Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, Die Kluge, Dido and Aeneas).

His discography includes the first recording of Concertos by Nikos Skalkottas with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra which was released on BIS in 2008. His CD “Mozart Arias” featuring French Soprano Géraldine Casey and the Southwest German Philharmonic was awarded a Golden Orpheus by the Académie internationale du disque lyrique in Paris for the best Mozart recording in 2009.

Vassilis Christopoulos was born in Munich. He studied oboe at the Athens Conservatory and was a member of the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra for three years. He completed his conducting studies with Professor Hermann Michael at the “Hochschule für Musik” in Munich in 2000.

In 1999 he was nominated “Young Musician of the Year” by the Greek Music and Drama Critics’ Association. In 2000 he won the First Prize at the 1st Bad Homburg Conducting Competition and was a prize winner in the “Dimitris Mitropoulos” International Conducting Competition in Athens.

May 2013