LdV laureates awarded in Athens
35th ceremony of the Prize: 30 May 2009
Recipient: Dionysis Grammenos
Classification: Classical Music
Occupation: Musician
Instrument: Clarinet
Years active: Since 2000

Biography
Dionysis Grammenos was born in Corfu Island (1989) and his musical intellegence and virtuosity have been recognised by conductors and instrumentalists worlwide. His international career was launched when he won the first prize at the Eurovision Musicians International Competition 2008 (the first wind player to win this competition) performing, during the Wiener Festwochen’s Opening Ceremony, in front of a huge audience and live broadcasted on television in more that 20 countries. Despite his young age, the 22-year-old Dionysis Grammenos has already performed with Orchestras like Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra and Thessaloniki State Orchestra (Greece), Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne and worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christian Lindberg, Ari Rasilainen, Shao En and Aleksandar Markovic.
Dionysis Grammenos’ recent and upcoming engagements include performances as solist in prestigious halls such as Vienna Konzerthaus, Auditorium Nacional de Musica de Madrid, Auditorium Musee du Louvre in Paris, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Minato Mirai Hall in Japan, Megaron the Athens Concert Hall, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Brucknerhaus Linz, and in festivals like Pheingau Festival, Festival “Pietrasanta in Concerto” and Athens Festival. Dionysis Grammenos has a strong passion for chamber music and performs regularly with Berlin Philharmonia and Salzburg Mozart Quartet. Other chamber music partners include Boris Andrianov, Oleg Marshev, Michael Guttman, Anneleen Lenaerts and David Guerrier. Dionysis Grammenos is talented in diverse fields. Already at the age of 21 he made his conducting debut with Vienna Chamber Orchestra. He received the International “Leonardo da Vinci” Award for the excellence in the arts, in Athens in 2009. He is a Gold Medallist of the City of Athens for his services to music and equally holds a prize for mathematics. Grammenos was appointed Artistic Director of the Corfu Festival of Arts in 2010. He rereived his Diploma with 1st Prize from the Athens Conservatory and continued his further musical development in style and interpretation under Prof. Martin Spangenberg with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. He is currently studying at the “Franz Liszt” Weimar School of Music, in Germany, where he is attending the conduction class. Recently Dionysis Grammenos was invited to record the clarinet concertos by Nielsen and Spohr for his first CD with Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ari Rasilainen.