Dionysis Grammenos

Dionysis Grammenos

Founder & Artistic Director

Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra, Greece

Conductor Dionysis Grammenos first established himself internationally as a clarinettist, winning in 2008 the Grand Prix d’Eurovision from the European Broadcasting Union as well as the title “European Young Musician of the Year”, the first wind player ever to receive this title. In 2013 he was awarded the “Rising Star” Prize by ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) and in 2016 a Conducting Fellowship at Aspen Music Festival.
In recent seasons Grammenos has worked with orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, Cameristi della Scala, Canadian Opera Company, Norwegian Radio, Belgian National Symphony, ORF Vienna, Malta Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival Strings, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, and with soloists such as Khatia Buniatishvili, Renaud Capuçon and Anna Fedorova. In 2022 he was the Principal Conductor of English Touring Opera’s production of Puccini La Bohème.

He has appeared in many of the world’s top venues including the Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonie, London’s Barbican Centre, Cité de la musique in Paris and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He has also made recordings for Naïve and Warner Classics and has performed live for the BBC Radio 3, ORF TV and the Bavarian Radio.
In 2009 Grammenos was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts and the Gold Medal of the City of Athens. In 2018 he was selected for the European Young Leaders programme, under the patronage of Jean-Claude Juncker, which aims to cultivate a European identity by engaging the most promising talents in initiatives destined to shape Europe’s future.
He is Founder and Artistic Director of the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO). Under his leadership the GYSO joined the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras and was invited to perform twice for the Young Euro Classic Festival at the Berlin Konzerthaus. Since 2020, the GYSO has been Orchestra in Residence at the Megaron in Athens.