I began studying the cello at 7 years old at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki initially with Mrs G. Meligkopoulou as my teacher and from 2002 to date Mr. Dmitri Gudimov.
In June 2010, I completed my studies and received my two diplomas, one in Cello and one in Music Theory and Harmony, both marked as excellent. The same month I auditioned and was accepted in the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, Netherlands, where I studied the following months with cellist Larissa Groeneveld, from September 2010 to March 2011.
In March 2013 I played in two concerts, one at the Thessaloniki Catholic Church and one to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Thessaloniki Jews, alongside legendary Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis.
I have participated in music masterclasses in Greece, Germany and Austria where I had lessons with cellists Dimitris Patras (Cello Professor at the University of Macedonia), Martin Hornstein (Cellist in Vienna), Mario de Secondi (Cello Professor at the Musik Hochschle Trossingen),Vladislava Morales (Cello Professor in Switzerland), Michael Flaksman (Cello Professor at the Musik Hochschulen in Heidelberg and Mannheim), Yelena Ocic (Cello Professor in the Musik Hochschule Mannheim), Lyudmilla Zimovina (Cello Professor in Moscow), Martha Gerschefski (Cello Professor in Atlanta, Georgia, USA), and Claus Kanngiesser (Cello Professor at the Musik Hochschule in Cologne).
In 2003 I was awarded 2nd Prize in the 14th music contest of the Alumni Association of Conservatories of Thessaloniki. In 2004 I was selected after auditioning to participate in 2 concerts of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra. In 2007 I won the First Prize in the strings competition of the Alumni Association of Conservatories of Thessaloniki.
In the same year I was selected to participate in the Youth Orchestra of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra. In March 2010 I was awarded 1st prize in the 34th Panhellenic Strings Competition organized by the cultural center "FILONAS" in Athens, and in May 2010 the 2nd prize in the Panhellenic Music Competition of the Conservatoire of Northern Greece. That same month, I gave a concert in Giannitsa, Greece, as one of the three first-prize winners of the FILONAS Panhellenic Competition. You can watch a video of the concert here.
© Copyright 2014 | Despina Kornilaki
