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George Petrou, the internationally acclaimed conductor of the Camerata Orchestra, was nominated for the 2018 Grammy award. He was nominated in the “Best Opera Recording” category for the recording of G.F. Handel’s Ottone [] with the Il Pomo d’Oro orchestra and primary soloists Max Emanuel Cencic and Lauren Snouffer. The Grammy Awards are the leading music awards of the USA, awarded every year to artists that stood out across the entire spectrum of the music industry. They hold the same prestige as the Oscars do in the film industry, currently numbering 108 categories and 30 music genres.
George Petrou studied the piano at the Athens Conservatoire with Maria Hairogeorgou-Sigara, graduating with honors and first prize. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. He has won numerous prizes in international competitions such as the 1998 New Artist Prize from the Union of Greek Theatre and Music Critics, and the International Sebetia-Ter Prize in Naples, Italy. As a conductor he has a broad repertoire, with an emphasis on historical performance practices and the opera.
He has conducted world-famous orchestras, including the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Concerto Köln, the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of South-West Germany. He has standing collaborations with major theatres, such as the Strasbourg Opera, the Saarländisches Staatstheater, the Leipsig Opera and the Bern Theatre. Since September of 2012, he has been serving as the artistic director of Camerata - Friends of Music Orchestra.
