Dimitris Kotronakis

Dimitris Kotronakis was born in Heraklion, Creta (Greece), in 1973. His studies on classical guitar begun when he was at the age of seven, and were completed under guidance of Vassilis Kanaras in 1992, when he graduated from the “International Conservatory of Athens”, obtaining his guitar diploma.

Dimitris Kotronakis

He attended post-graduate studies on classical guitar at the “Athens Conservatory”, graduating again in 1996, under supervision of Costas Cotsiolis.

Meanwhile, he further expanded his theoretical musical knowledge (obtaining diploma in Fuge, under tutoring of Giorgos Sioras) and attended Musicology classes (obtaining diploma from the Musicology branch of the University of Athens, in 1996).

Today he is a Phd student of the above University, with his thesis having as its subject: “Greek composers for guitar in the twentieth century”.

He has been awarded many prizes in guitar competitions, including 1st prize in the Volos guitar festival (Greece 1994), 1st prize in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria guitar festival (Spain 1996), 2nd prize in the National Conservatory composing for guitar contest (Athens 1998), 1st prize in the Sinaia guitar festival (Romania 1999) and 1st prize in the Chalkis guitar competition (Greece 2002).

He has so far recorded two CDs with music by Nikos Mamagakis, namely “New Excursion” for solo guitar (two songs for guitar and voice included) and “Spring Synphony” for guitar and voice, based on poetry by Yannis Ritsos (IDAIA records – 2007).

In cooperation with the guitar quintet “Epsilon” (of whom he is the leed guitar), he has recorded another CD titled “Angel guitars” (MBI records – 2006).

His fourth CD titled “Echomythia” has been released in USA in the autumn of 2007 by the ClearNote publications. This disk contains pieces of the modern guitar repertory, influenced by the streams of Jazz, Latin and Brazilian music.

He has performed in numerous guitar recitals throughout the Europe and the North and South America; he has also co-operated as a soloist with the Craiova Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), the Orchestra of Colors (Greece), the Camerata Symphonic Orchestra (Greece), the Warsaw Philarmonic Orchestra (Poland) and the “Nicolaos Mantzaros” orchestra (Greece).

He teaches classical guitar in the Music School of Alimos, Athens, in the Panarmonio Conservatory, Athens and in the International Conservatory of Athens.