MARIA MAKRAKI
It represents a different modern Greece abroad, that of creation, art and culture. It’s Orchestra Director Maria Makrakis.
He was born in Thessaloniki and studied in Athens receiving a piano diploma and first prize, as well as Senior Theoreticals (diploma of Counterpoint, Fugas, Composition) from the Athens Conservatory with professors Pericles Koukos, Alkis Balta and Aphrodite Lyroudias.
She graduated with a master’s degree from the Physical Department of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and continued her studies in the Directorate of Orchestra at the University of Good Technology (Universität der Künste) in Berlin, as a fellow of DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst), Schubert, Franz Grothe and the University of Berlin, with professors Hanns Martin Rabenstein and Isaiah Jackson where she obtained her diploma with the highest distinction.
He then completed postgraduate and doctoral studies in the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in orchestral training (DMA) at the University of Music “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin with special professor Hans Dieter Baum and postgraduate seminars with distinguished conductors.
In the fifth international orchestra management competition in the Czech Republic, he wins the first prize and is associated with Czech orchestras. In 1996 he was awarded the “Carl Maria von Weber” orchestra management competition in Munich, creating a long-term collaboration with Munich Radio and in the same year he was awarded and introduced as a fellow in the program for the promotion of new conductors of the German Music Council “Deutscher Musikrat Dirigentenforum”.
As conductor she has repeatedly conducted many prominent European orchestras in England, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey and the United States of America. He has associated among other things with the Radios of Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, with them and records, with the Symphony Orchestra of ERT Athens, and countless world famous philharmonic, symphonic and state orchestras such as Baden-Badener, Berlin, and Nürnberg. Also with theatres such as Bremen, Giessen, Halle, Heidelberg, Münster, as well as as guest in the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, England, Austria and the United States of America (Boston Symphony Orchestra).
It has received excellent reviews, in widely available reputable magazines such as “Das Orchester”, “Opernwelt”, “Neafon” as well as in newspapers such as “Berliner Morgenpost”, “Die Welt” and many others.
At the international orchestra management competition in Solingen, Germany in April 2000, she won the first prize as well as the position of conductor of the Bergische Symphony Orchestra. As the awards succeed each other, in 2001 she was introduced to the highest artistic promotion list of new conductors of the German state “Maestros von Morgen – Conductors of Tomorrow”, where he secured her concert series with distinguished German orchestras.
In 2003 she received the state position of conductor at the Chemnitz Opera in Germany with the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2007 she is the artistic director of the European Camerata in Berlin. Between 2007 and 09 he was awarded a Doctorate in Orchestra Management in the Department of Music Science and Art of the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki. She is also the artistic director of the Regain Contemporary Music Festival in Athens since 2012 and the newly created European Culture Festival since 2015.
Maestro is widely known as an ambassador of Greek culture in Europe: in her concerts she manages to build bridges between classical repertoire and contemporary music, symphony and opera while at the same time bringing out Greek and European composers performing works in first world performances.
A main objective of her artistic work is to develop and implement innovative ideas for contemporary European music. He is often called as a judge for various composition and orchestra management competitions. In addition, he works as a lecturer in the field of orchestra management. Her artistic work focuses on the creation and implementation of innovative cross-border programmes that highlight the specificities of modern European music. She’s married and has two sons.
