Grammenos conducts worldwide with orchestras including Houston Symphony with whom he made his US debut in 2024, Belgian National Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Athens State Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Cameristi della Scala, Lucerne Festival Strings, Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, and with soloists such as Khatia Buniatishvili, Renaud Capuçon, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daniel Ottensamer, Anna Fedorova and Mahan Esfahani. 25/26 season highlights include returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Slovak State Orchestra and a recording with London’s Philharmonia. With the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra he will make his conducting debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and will be joined by Leonidas Kavakos for a performance at The Megaron.
On the opera stage, Grammenos has conducted Puccini La Boheme with New Zealand Opera and English Touring Opera and has received praise for “one of the best Bohèmes I have heard in recent years” and for his “sensitivity and assurance, balancing the orchestra beautifully with the singers”. He has also conducted Rossini La Cenerentola at Neville Holt Opera, Mozart La Clemenza di Tito at the Aspen Music Festival and Verdi Il Trovatore at the Theatre Vorpommern. Prior to this, he made his opera conducting debut in Würzburg with Puccini Gianni Schicchi and has assisted Johannes Debus on productions of TchaikovskyEugene Onegin and Mozart The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Canadian Opera Company.
Grammenos is Founder and Artistic Director of the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO). Under his leadership the GYSO has performed at prestigious venues across the world including Carnegie Hall, London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields and having joined the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras, the orchestra was invited to perform at the opening concert of the Young Euro Classic Festival at the Berlin Konzerthaus. Since 2020, the GYSO has been Orchestra in Residence at the Megaron in Athens.
Grammenos trained as a clarinettist at the University of Music “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, and in 2008 won the Grand Prix d’Eurovision from the European Broadcasting Union as well as the title European Young Musician of the Year, the first wind player ever to receive this title. As soloist he has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie and Carnegie Hall, with the Vienna Symphony, Norwegian Radio and ORF Vienna and as an ECHO Rising Star he has appeared in many of the world’s top venues including London’s Barbican Centre and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He has also made recordings for Naïve and Warner Classics.
In 2009 Grammenos was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts and the Gold Medal of the City of Athens. After his studies in Weimar, he studied conducting at the Würzburg Music University with Ari Rasilainen, and was invited to take part in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman, Bernhard Haitink, Patrick Summers and Robert Spano. In 2018 he was selected for the European Young Leaders programme, under the patronage of Jean-Claude Juncker, which aims to cultivate a European identity by engaging the most promising talents in initiatives destined to shape Europe’s future.
2025/26 season / 619 words. Not to be altered without permission.