Dimitris Kountouras
Born in Greece he studied recorder, historical flutes and early music performance practice in Utrecht, Milan, Vienna and Trossingen with Kees Boeke, Heiko ter Schegget, Wilbert Hazelzet, Marcello Gatti and Daniele Bragetti. He appeared in venues and Festivals in Europe and in Asia such as Sala Verdi in Milan, Pablo Casals in Tokyo, Styriarte Festival in Graz, Banchetto Musicale in Vilnius, Blumenthal in Tel Aviv, Via Medieval in Mainz, Megaron in Athens, J.S.Bach Festival in Riga etc. He collaborated with Armonia Atenea (G.Petrou), Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Ph. Jordan), United Europe Chamber Orchestra Milan and Harmony of Nations Baroque Orchestra and with renowned artists such as Michael Chance and Savina Yannatou. He has recorded with Ex Silentio for Talanton and Carpe Diem and as orchestra principal flautist in baroque opera productions for MDG and DECCA. He took part in the European tour of Armonia Atenea’s “Alessandro” by G.Fr. Handel (Versailles, Paris, Moscow, A’dam, Bruxelles, Bucarest etc). He holds a PhD on historical musicology from the Athens University and was a Post Doc scholar for the Athens Centre for Humanistic Studies for his research project “Music of the Troubadours at the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica after 1204″(Nefeli/Fairead 2017). He has given lectures, seminars and masterclasses at the KingsCollege in London, at the Lugano Conservatoire, in “Music village” Pelion, and since 2017 at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneve where he also conducted the Baroque Orchestra of HEM. He teaches at the Ionian University and coordinates the Centre for Early Music at the Athens Conservatoire. He published essays and articles on relations of renaissance humanism and music, the crusades and the troubadours etc.