George Petrou

George Petrou was born in Greece and studied at the Conservatory in Athens, as well as at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He had already made a name for himself as a concert pianist before embarking on an international career as a conductor. Since 2012 he has been artistic director of Armonia Atenea (formerly Camerata Athens), with whom he performs regularly around Europe, including at the Handel Festival in Halle, the Opéra Royal in Versailles and Wigmore Hall in London. Under his direction, Armonia Atenea made its debut in 2014 as the first Greek orchestra at the BBC Proms, gaining enthusiastic reviews. In recent years, George Petrou has made numerous highly acclaimed recordings with Armonia Atenea for Decca, including Handel’s Alessandro and Hasse’s Siroe, arias by Gluck with Daniel Behle and Rokoko, an album of arias by Max Emanuel Cencic featuring music by Hasse. His recording of Beethoven’s Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus also attracted international attention. In February 2016 George Petrou conducted Handel’s rare opera Arminio at the Karlsruhe International Handel Festival and a recording appeared at the same time. Also that year George Petrou and the orchestra made their debut on Deutsche Grammophon with an album of arias featuring Franco Fagioli.

George Petrou’s recordings have been honoured with awards such as editor’s choice in Gramophone, the Diapason d’or and the Echo Klassik. He appears regularly as a guest conductor with major European orchestras and at prominent opera houses, including the National Theatre in Mannheim, the Opéra de Nice, the Darmstadt State Theatre, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the B’Rock Orchestra in Belgium.

During the 2015/16 season he conducted Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna in a symphonic-visual concert at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Rossini’s La Cenerentola in Trieste and Cherubini’s Medea in Nice. Highlights of the current season including a highly acclaimed production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the St Gallen Theatre, Hasse’s Siroe at the Hesse State Theatre in Wiesbaden and a gala concert with Sonia Prina at the Handel Festival in Halle.

Current as of February 2017