Andreas Papanikolaou

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1982, Andreas received his Performer’s Diploma from the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki with Mrs. Irina Dragneva in 2001. In 2004 he received his Bachelor of Music in performance with Prof. Taras Gabora at the Vancouver Academy of Music as a scholar of the V.A.M. and the 'Friends of Music foundation' (A.Trianti) of the Athens Megaron. He was awarded in various solo and chamber music competitions such as the Kay Meek competition, the Elsje De Ridder Armstrong Chamber Music competition, Friends of Chamber Music. Canada among others. He has attended many international masterclasses where he has worked with acclaimed teachers such as Vallery Oistrakh, Julian Rachlin, Robert Rozek, Gilles Apap, Ara Malikian, Pedro Cortinas, Kosmas Galileas, Gwen Thompson, Sidney Harth, Stelios Kafantaris, Karen Turpie among others. He has taken part in numerous international music festivals giving concerts in various countries. Andreas is the founder of the Emilios Riadis String Quartet and the founder and artistic director of the Thessaloniki String Ensemble with which has given a lot of concerts in Greece and abroad. Andreas has performed as a soloist with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Municipality Symphony Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the Vancouver Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Academy Strings among other ensembles. He has served as concertmaster at the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Academy Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Academy Strings and the Thessaloniki String Ensemble. He is the founder of “Animus”, a non-profit organization in Greece with which has given various concerts for UNICEF, Medecins Sans Frontieres and others. Since 2001 he was a member of the first violins of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra until 2014 when he got the Principal second violin position of TSSO.