DINO MASTROYIANNIS - CLASSICAL CONCERT PIANIST

Eminent Greek concert pianist Dino Mastroyiannis, whom the legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis praised as “a true Apostle of his music, has pursued a career of remarkable diversity.

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Regarded for his “rich and multi-faceted technique”, “perfect feeling for rhythm” and “rare expressiveness”, he has appeared in such prestigious concert halls as Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, England; Glinka Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Ateneul Român in Bucharest (Romania); Rudolfinum in Prague (Czech Republic); Lisinski in Zagreb (Croatia); Tadeusz Szeligowski Poznań  Philharmonic Hall in Poznań (Poland); Reduta in Bratislava (Slovakia); Big Concert Hall of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara (Turkey); Big Concert Hall named after “Salikh Saidashev” in Kazan (Russia); and the “Sala Bulgaria” in Sofia, to name a few. He has performed in many international festivals and in historic places, including the ‘Bertramka’ Mozart museum in Prague, the Rector's Palace "Atrium" in Dubrovnik, the Ancient Odeon Theatre of Herodes Atticus as part of the Athens International Festival (“Hellenic Festival”), and in April 2010 at the Montenegrin National Theatre as part of the 9th International ‘A Tempo’ Festival, of which the newspaper ‘Dan’ wrote: “impressive how a ‘simple’ piece in the hands of a virtuoso could become truly a work of art which persons of all ages find interesting… This pianist is well known as ‘the Music Ambassador of Greece’. We would also add that this title is rightly chosen.”

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Dino Mastroyiannis enjoyed a special collaboration and friendship with the legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. Among many of Theodorakis’ works for Piano and Orchestra he has performed to critical acclaim under the baton of the famous Swiss conductor Robert Sélitrenny, Mastroyiannis achieved tremendous success with the world premiere of Theodorakis’ Helikon Piano Concerto – lost for 44 years – given first in Finland in 2005 with the Mikkeli City Orchestra, and subsequently with orchestras in several other countries. 

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On July 16th, 2010 Dino’s 2nd CD Zorba’s Dance-Greek Music for Solo Piano has been released by MSR Classics; this CD received enthusiastic reviews from the international music Press. Peter Burwasser wrote at the famous FANFARE magazine in USA (January-February 2011 Issue): «This affectionately well-played collection of solo Greek piano music makes no pretense to be anything else but a tribute to traditional folk-based nationalistic material. Dino Mastroyiannis plays it all with authority and panache.»

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Mr. Mastroyiannis first undertook piano study under Ely Adam, who herself studied with a pupil of Alfred Cortot. He is a graduate of the Music Conservatory of Athens, where he studied under Aliki Vatikioti, receiving a Soloist Diploma with the highest possible distinction and the coveted First Prize. He continued his studies under internationally acclaimed Bulgarian pedagogues Julia and Konstantin Ganev (Julia Ganeva was of Armenian origin) - former students of Heinrich Neuhaus and fellow students in his class at the "Tchaikovsky" Conservatory in Moscow together with Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels and others - and in both solo and chamber music performance in Austria, Germany and at the Sion Music Academy in Switzerland. Mr. Mastroyiannis completed his studies in piano performance as a private student of the legendary virtuoso Brazilian pianist Roberto Szidon, who was a student of Claudio Arrau and Artur Rubinstein.

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Dino Mastroyiannis was the only person from Greece to whom the International Organization “Mozart 2006” (Austria) gave its written permission to use their official logo for a very special and rare series of concerts, the “Anthology of music for Piano 4 hands”. The Italian newspaper “Libertà” praised him with the enthusiastic review “discovering the most secret Mozart” for his special interpretation in some of Mozart’s most famous chamber-works in Piacenza (Italy). Dino has recorded many times for different radio and TV stations all over Europe. He has also recorded in CD the 4th Piano Concerto of Saint-Saëns with the Catanzaro Symphony Orchestra.

Dino enjoys also a very intimate career as a teacher and mentor of young musicians. During 2001-2002 he created and was the inspirer, Artistic Director and main economical supporter of the Volos International Music Festival.

With an incredible teaching experience as a Piano and Chamber-Music Professor for 31 years at the Volos' Conservatory in Greece Dino educated hundreds of students. Many of them won First Prizes in national and international competitions, they already became professional musicians and performed in many prestigious venues worldwide, even at the "Carnegie Hall" in New York. Dino is invited several times as a member of the Jury in international Piano competitions. Also, he was invited to teach in master-classes both in his country and abroad. 

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After the summer of 2010 he interrupted his concert activities because of a focal dystonia, a decease that meant the end of the concert career for many famous pianists ; his right hand recovered from the focal dystonia thanks to the precious advice of the specialist, Belgian pianist, Laurent Boullet. By means of the really revolutionary retraining method of Laurent Boullet Dino explored new techniques both as a performer and as a teacher.

Beginning from summer 2011 Dino started working on a new idea: he became the inspirer and Artistic Director of a new international music festival: the Evmelia Festival which described by the artists as “the music of dreams that comes true”, has been accomplished in collaboration with Katerina Porphyrogenis, the President of the Porphyrogenis Foundation (Agria, Greece), Evmelia Festival successfully completed its 7th Edition in early October 2019.

In 2014 Dino performed with tremendous success at the Evmelia III Festival Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin together with the distinguished Austrian baritone Georg Lehner. The live recording of that concert has been released in Dino’s 3rd CD by the Italian company “Sheva Collection”.

Two of the most successful highlights is Dino’s career during the last years were his solo recital at the 6th International Festival Constantinus in Serbia (June 2015), performing his new fascinating recital program L’art du chant appliqué au piano inspired by his deep love for the Lied and opera repertoire, and his concert Ich will meine Seele tauchen at the Bösendorfer Hall in Mozart’s House in Vienna together with the soprano Olivera Tičević and the baritone Georg Lehner (July 2015), which has been organized by the famous Piano factory Bösendorfer. Recently Dino performed with great success as a soloist with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Moldova Philharmonic Mozart’s Piano Concerto Jeunehomme. Also, he performed a ceremony solo recital for the 125 years of the legendary “Zografeion” in Istanbul (Turkey), where he has also performed the world-premiere of Zorba the Greek, a fascinating new jazz-arrangement of the Russian composer Vladimir Titov written for and dedicated to Dino, and based on the famous syrtaki-theme of Mikis Theodorakis’ Zorba. This recital has been also performed under tremendous success in Ankara, organized by the Greek Embassy of Turkey, at the Big Concert Hall of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara.

The internationally famous Dutch pianist, composer and arranger Frédéric Meinders has composed and dedicated to Dino his work Variations on a Theme of Chopin for Piano left hand and String Orchestra, while the Ukrainian composer Anna Leonova has composed and dedicated to Dino her Poem for Piano left hand and Orchestra.

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