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Dionysis Grammenos is the first Greek invited to participate in the American Academy of Conducting as a conductor at the Aspen Festival, Colorado, which is the largest festival of its kind in the USA. He was selected from among hundreds of participants from around the world by Robert Spano, Festival Director and Musical Director of the Atlanta Symphonic Orchestra.
Every year the Aspen Festival hosts more than 300 concerts, inviting top names from the world music scene, including this year the soprano Renée Fleming, violinists Gil Shaham and Joshua Bell, flautist Emmanuel Pahud and pianist Yefim Bronfman.
The 26-year-old Dionysis Grammenos, who hails from Corfu, studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Music School in Weimar, next to Martin Spangenberg, on a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. Over recent years, internationally he has garnered the interest of top conductors. He recently conducted at the Lucerne Festival and studied next to Bernard Haitink, who praised him for his conducting talent and musicality.
In addition to conducting orchestras, Dionysis Grammenos is also continuing his solo career as a clarinettist and in October 2016 he will pair up with the Berlin Philharmonic for a concert. He has appeared with many prestigious orchestras, such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonia Quartet and the Swedish Wind Ensemble. He has also appeared at international festivals and has given recitals in leading concert halls, including the Vienna Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Athens Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Auditorium Musée du Louvre, the Barbican in London, the Madrid National Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the Athens Concert Hall.
Dionysis Grammenos has received the Leonardo da Vinci International Award and the Gold Medal of the City of Athens.
