Κώστας Κοτσιώλης

Thanks to his numerous tours all over the world and his recognition by the audience as well as by the musical critics, Costas Cotsiolis is nowadays considered as one of the greatest guitarists of this time. He has appeared in great concert halls like the Auditorium De Madrid, Grant Auditorium Radio France, Concertgebow Amsterdam, Concert Hall BBC, Alt Opera Frankfurt, Palais de Beaux Arts Brussels, Concert Hall of Athens (Megaron),Palais de Congress (Paris), Herodium (the Acropolis Theater) etc. co-operating with great symphonic orchestras like the ones of the Broadcasting of Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, BBC, The Junge Deutsche Philarmonie, the soloists of Sofia and Belgrade, the symphonic orchestra Queen Sofia of Madrid, Cordoba, Cannes,Lithuanian, etc. He appeared at the biggest guitar Festivals of the world like Cordoba, Liege, Canarian Islands, Tijuana, Paris, Martinique, Leverkusen, Koblenz, Havanna, GFA of the USA etc.. He worked together at concerts with great artists like John Williams, John McLaughlin, Maria Farandouri, Milva, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Patrice Fontanarosa, Al di Meola, Larry Corryel, Jean Jacques Kantorow, Stanley Jordan, Vicente Amigo. Great guitar composers like Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Cordero, Sergio Assad, Dusan Bogdanovich, Anton Garcia Abril have dedicated their works to him. Besides he played many premiéres of composers like Mikis Theodorakis, Theodore Antoniou, Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Cordero, Sergio Assad etc. Costas Cotsiolis has been the art director of the Volos International Guitar Festival since 1978 ( since 2006 called the Naxos International Guitar Festival ), where more than 9000 students as well as about 400 professors and soloist appeared from all over the world. Many fabulous guitarists started their international career as young talents at this festival. He is professor of the Conservatory of Athens, the New Conservatory in Thessaloniki and the University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus, creating an exemplary school of excellent guitarists who have been awarded all over the world and have international career. He gave seminars abroad at great universities and music academies like the Manhattan School of Music, Weimar, Berlin, Dallas, Oslo, Mozarteum of Salzburg etc. In 1998 he became an honorary citizen of Dallas (Texas).