Biography
Apostolos Palios has been described as “one of the most amazing pianists of our days’’ (Aldo Ciccolini), “a marvelous artist” (Cyprien Katsaris), “an extremely gifted, communicative and dedicated musician of great finesse, artistry and charismatic projection, who possesses excellent international potential” (Yonty Solomon).
Born in Greece (Karditsa), in 1979, Palios began playing the piano at an early age. He studied at the Larisa Conservatory and graduated in 1997 with distinction and first prize. He continued his piano studies at the Music Academy of Berlin Hanns Eisler with Prof. Georg Sava and at the Music Academy of Leipzig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with Prof. Markus Tomas, where he received master- and soloist diploma with distinction in 2006. He also studied chamber music and conducting. He has studied musicology at the University of Athens, where he received his Ph.D.
He has received lessons from distinguished artists Aldo Ciccolini, Murray Perahia, Cyprien Katsaris, Yonty Solomon, Roberto Szidon and George Hadjinikos.
He has won scholarships from the Costopoulos Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Greek National Scholarships Foundation, the State of Leipzig, and the World in Harmony Foundation.
He is the prizewinner of several National and International Piano, Chamber Music and Composition Competitions in Greece (S.A.O.Th Piano Competition, CH.O.N. Piano Competition, Patras Piano Competition, Saratsi Piano Competition, Vikelas Piano Competition, Maria Chairogiorgou-Sigara Piano Competition), Germany (Leipzig-Yamaha Piano Competition, Kuhlau Competition, Berlin-Hanns Eisler Prize, Wolfenbuttel Competition), Spain (Ibiza Piano Competition) and Italy (Rovere d' Oro Competition). He is also the scholarship winner of the 2006 Gina Bachauer Prize piano competition.
He has received a special award from the Academy of Athens and has won the prestigious prizes "Best Greek Young Artist of the Year 2007" and “Best Recording by Greek Artist” from the Association of Greek Critics for Drama and Music.
He has appeared in many concerts given in Greece and abroad in Germany, United Kingdom, United States, France, Austria, Spain, Russia, Norway, Cyprus, Turkey, Romania, Chile, Egypt and elsewhere and he has performed at some of the most important concert halls in the world, like Berlin Philharmonic Hall, New York Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Oslo Philharmonic Hall, Granada Auditorio de Falla Concert Hall, Athens Megaron Concert Hall. He is a frequent guest at many International Festivals (Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Sani Festival, Nafplion Festival, Aegina Festival, Papaioannou Festival, Around the piano Series, Sinfonia Piraeus Festival, Hydra Festival, Montofoli Festival, Caza dei Mezzo Festival, Mani Sonnenlink Festival, Coroni Festival, Musicalta Alsace Festival, Loudun Young Artists Festival, St Peterburg Conservatoire Festival, Istanbul Music Festival). He has been presented on television and music magazines and has recorded live for the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation.
As a soloist he has appeared with many orchestras (Berlin Symphony Orchestra, New Elbland Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Music Comedy Leipzig, Galati Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Athens State Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Athens Youth Symphony Orchestra, Camerata String Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Athens, Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Patras String Orchestra, Larisa Symphony Orchestra, Volos Symphony Orchestra, Greek National Radio Orchestra, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra and others), prestigious conductors such as C. Warren Green, Rainer Koch, S. Kogan, Ph. Bender, Jiri Rosen and famous artists such as composer Rodion Shchedrin, violonists Michael Guttman and Anton Martynov, singers Carla Dirlikov and Elisabeth Whitehouse, Mario Zeffiri and D. Platanias, trumpetist Jeroen Berwaerts, guitarist Ricardo Gallen. His exceptional artistic appearances were enthusiastic received by eminent music critics.
He has been a member of the well-known Aurora (Piano) Quartet of Germany and has given the first world performances of piano works. He has also been a member of the ensemble for contemporary music Ergon Ensemble.
His repertoire spans a wide spectrum of works for solo piano, chamber music and concertos for piano and orchestra, which begins from the early baroque and extends to the 21st century. His discography includes CD recordings of piano works from the romantic period, Norwegian piano music, Greek contemporary music as well as a recording for Naxos Label including piano music of L. Margaritis and F. Petyrek. He is the only Greek pianist, who has performed Beethoven’s extremely difficult piano sonata "Hammerklavier" during the last decades as well as solo piano repertoire for the left hand only.
He has been a piano lecturer at the Music Science and Art Department of the Macedonia University in Thessaloniki as well as the artistic director of Young Classical Series.
Currently he teaches Music Interpretation and Analysis as well as Piano Performance at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.