Dimitris Tiliakos and

Vassilis Varvaresos

Baritone Dimitris Tiliakos was born in Rhodes. After studying the viola he began his vocal training at the Athenaeum conservatory in Athens. He won the Maria Callas Scholarship and this allowed him to continue his studies in Opera and Lied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München where he was awarded with the Meisterklassendiplom degree for outstanding artistic performance. Shortly thereafter he made his debut at the Prinz­ regententheater in Munich in the role
of Conte Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and was awarded the W.D. Fassbaender Prize for young baritones.

Dimitris started his career as a member of the Nuremberg state opera where he performed the major parts of the baritone repertory and quickly made a name for himself through a series of guest performances at major opera houses and concert halls. Recent engagements include Opera National de Paris (Don Carlo, Macbeth), London Royal Opera House (Don Carlos), Opera de Monte Carlo (La Bohème), Sala Sao Paulo, Teatro La Fenice (Manon Lescaut), Polish National Opera (Otello, Carmen), Athens Megaron (Simone Boccanegra, Macbeth), Tokyo Opera City, Greek National Opera (Don Giovanni, Carmen, Il Trovatore), Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall, Theater Bern (Carmen), Metropolitan Opera (La Bohème), Teatro Real Madrid (Les Huquenots Dido and Aeneas and Macbeth), Opera de Nice (Il Trovatore and Simone Boccanegra), Staatsoper Hamburg (Manon Lescaut), Cologne Opera (La Forza del destino), Nederlandse Opera (La Traviata), Luxem­ burg Opera (La Forza del destino), Semper Oper of Dresden (Rigoletto), Teatro Liceu Barcelona (The Legend of the invisible city of Kitez by Rimsky Korsakov),Theatre Royal de la Monnaie (Trovatore, Rigoletto, Fran­ cesca da Rimini), Danish Royal Opera (La Traviata), Bolshoi Theatre Moscow (Don Giovanni, Rigoletto), Zurich Opera (Macbeth).

He took the title role in a recording Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth live from the Paris Opera and Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell for Alpha records. He also recorded the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with MusicAeterna under the baton of Teodor Currentzis for Sony Classical.

 

Greek pianist Vassilis Varvaresos (1983) was in 1998 the youngest ever winner of Young Concert Artists New York. This achievement has been followed by various international prizes, his most recent being 3rd prize at the Enescu competition in Bucharest in September 2014. He has performed in many major venues in the USA such as the Morgan Library, the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln center, and The Kennedy Center in Washington.

In March 2012 after his rst solo recital in Carnegie Hall he was invited by President Obama to perform at the White House. This ‘most promising young Greek artist’ also plays as soloist with orchestras as well as in chamber music recitals and recording projects. In the 15/16 season he made his debut at the Musikverein in Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich, Salle Gaveau Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Berliner Philharmonie.

(Photography Irini Michopoulou)