Gionanidis

Vikentios Gionanidis was born in 1988 in Corfu, Greece. He began his musical studies in 1998 at the wind band “Manzaros”, witch included Theory, Percussion, Euphonium and finally the Tuba. In the year of 2004 he entered the Concervatory of Corfu to continue his higher musical education in Tuba and Harmony, following the classes of George Rarakos and Anastasios Kazianis. In Oktober 2007 he started his studies at the Academy for Music, Media and Drama of Hannover joining the famous tuba class of Prof. Jens Björn-Larsen. During the years there, he had the chance to participate in various chamber music ensembles and receive training and experience both as a tuba soloist as well as an orchestral performer. He got his diploma Degree on February 2013.

He won first prizes in two of the most prestigious competitions for brass instruments. At the International Aeolus Competition in Düsseldorf (2010), apart from the first prize, he also won the special prize for contemporary music and the audience award, competing against other brass instruments such as the trumpet and the trombone. At the International Instrumental Competition in Markneukirchen (2012) Gionanidis won the first prize. He also won prizes at the National Music Academy Competition in Lübeck (2011) and the International Brass Competition in Gdansk (2012).

Vikentios Gionanidis has appeared as a soloist with the Folkwang chamber orchestra in Essen, the orchestra of the Plauen-Zwickau Theater, the Göttinger Symphoniker, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Gdansk Akademy Orchestra, just to name a few.

As an orchestral musician, Vikentios has performed with orchestras such as the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, the Wüttembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Göttinger Symphoniker, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Konzerthaus-Orchestra Berlin, the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, the Berlin Philharmonic among others. He has also worked together with Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt.

Since 2014 Vikentios Gionanidis is teaching orchestral and solo literature at the Academy for Music, Media and Drama of Hannover, assisting his teacher Prof. Jens Björn-Larsen.

Apart of his work as a tuba player, Vikentios is also an active arranger of music for brass. His arrangements have been performed in Germany, Greece, Hungary, United Kingdom, Japan and United states of America.