Simos Papanas

Simos Papanas was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1979.

He studied violin, baroque violin, composition, and mathematics at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Oberlin College, and Yale University.

His violin teachers included Petar Arnaudov, Taras Gabora, and Eric Friedman; he studied baroque violin with Marilyn McDonald and composition with Christos Samaras.

As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as the Dresden State Orchestra, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Athens and Thessaloniki State Orchestras, the National Symphony Orchestra of Greek Radio, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia Soloists Orchestra, the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest German Symphony Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, and Musical Moments (Moments Musicaux Philharmonic) in Taiwan.

Papanas has recorded as a soloist for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, and Centaur. He has performed at festivals such as Verbier (Switzerland), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), the Savannah Music Festival (USA), Sommets Musicaux Gstaad (Switzerland), the International Violin Festival in St. Petersburg, the Athens Festival, and the Tokyo Music Festival, as well as at Carnegie Hall, the Palau de la Música (Barcelona), the Grand Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Dresden Opera, and the Herodes Atticus Theater in Athens. His works have been performed and recorded worldwide (USA, Russia, Canada, Peru, Iran, Japan, Taiwan, and most European countries) in prestigious concert halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei.

Since 2003, he has been the concertmaster of the State Symphony Orchestra of Thessaloniki.