KRYSTALIA GAITANOU
Violist
Head of Educational Programming and Communication
Vocal Chamber Music Classes, The Musical Horizons Conservatory

Born in Athens, Greece to musician parents, violist Krystalia Gaitanou has collaborated with and performed under the direction of world-renowned artists including Kurt Masur, James Levine, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Leonard Slatkin, Philippe Entremont, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukerman and Philippe Auguin.

A member of the Greek National Opera Orchestra, Ms. Gaitanou has performed with the Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the National Symphony Orchestra of ERT, and important symphony orchestras internationally including the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Santo Domingo Festival Symphony Orchestra, the Kurt Masur Seminar Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Since 2008, she has been a regular guest of pianist and conductor Philippe Entremont at the Santo Domingo Music Festival. 

In the summer of 2009, Ms. Gaitanou was selected to participate in the Tanglewood Music Festival under the direction of James Levine, and in that same year, presented the first national performance of works for viola by the award-winning Greek-American composer George Tsontakis at the Athens Festival. Passionate about chamber music, Ms. Gaitanou has participated in international viola and chamber music seminars with Artmut Rhode in France, Wilfried Strehle at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, and Michael Ouzounian, Craig Mumm, and Steven Dann in New York City. As a soloist, Ms. Gaitanou has performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Broadway Bach Ensemble in New York; music by Robert Schumann at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London; and works with the Athens State Orchestra String Ensemble and the Athens Municipal Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Gaitanou studied violin, viola, and advanced music theory at The Musical Horizons Conservatory, receiving degrees in Viola and Harmony and a Diploma in Viola with distinction, First Prize, and a Gold Medal. She is also a graduate of the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2003, as a scholarship recipient of the Athens Concert Hall (bequest of Alexandra Trianti), Ms. Gaitanou studied viola in Paris, at the C.N.R de Rueil-Malmaison with Vincent Aucante and at the C.N.R de Boulogne-Billiancourt in Paris with Isabelle Lequien, obtaining, respectively, the Diplome Superieur and the Diplome de Perfectionnement. In 2007, with scholarships from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, the State Scholarship Foundation, and the Manhattan School of Music (Helen Whitaker Scholarship), Ms. Gaitanou continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City under the tutelage of renowned violinist Karen Dreyfus, obtaining a Master of Music Degree and a Professional Studies Degree in Viola via the university’s distinguished Orchestral Studies program under the direction of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Gaitanou plays on a viola crafted in 1936 by John Wilkinson.