Alexandra Christodimou and Yannis Petridis, studied at the National Conservatoire of Athens with the famous guitar duo Evangelos Assimakopoulos and Liza Zoe and graduated, honored with distinction. They carried on their studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK, taking a postgraduate degree in musical performance with Gordon Crosskey. In addition, Yannis Petridis holds a Doctorate degree from Stony Brook University,  New York, USA, where he studied with full scholarship under Professor Jerry Willard. They are both awarded at Greek and International Guitar Competitions. 

They have performed as a duo in major concert halls, guitar festivals, Colleges and Universities - including Yale University, and taught in Master Classes, in USA, Canada, G. Britain, Germany, France, Cyprus, Hungary, Morocco and, of course, Greece. They have broadcasted and performed for various Broadcasting Organizations and collaborated with orchestras. They have toured extensively with the Cyprus State Orchestra and have performed at the Athens Music Hall, the Greek Presidential Palace and for the Greek Composers Union.

Among their interests, throughout their career, has been to enrich the guitar duo repertoire by transcribing for two guitars works such as G. Gershwin's “Rhapsody in blue”, J. S. Bach's “Italian Concerto”, J. Rodrigo’s ‘Adagio” from the ‘Concerto d’ Aranjuez’ as well as to give out Greek music. Works by Greek composers are always performed in their concerts, some of which are dedicated to them: the eminent Greek composers Kostas Grogoreas, George Hadjimichelakis and Dimitris Minakakis have composed and dedicated to Alexandra and Yannis large scale works which, in addition to music by Theodore Antoniou, Vassilis Tenidis and legentary American composer George Gherswin, where presented in a series of concerts in USA and Cananda, and concerts in Athens organized by the Greek Composers Union.

In 2016, Yannis gave a lecture at Yale University, illuminating the topic: “Ancient, traditional, popular and modern Greek traces in the music for two guitars by T. Antoniou, P. Koukos, K. Giorginakis, K. Grigoreas, V. Tenidis”.

Worth mentioning is their arrangement of the work "For A Little White Seashell" by Manos Hadjidakis, a milestone of modern Greek music, recorded and inluded on the CD "Master Class, Half a Century of Greek Guitarists" (EROS MUSIC, 2005).  

During the last years, in collaboration with ALEA III,  Contemporary Music Ensemble in Residense at Boston University since 1979, founded by Theodore Antoniou -  focusing at composition, performance and interpretation of new music, and Berklee College of Music, they have taught in masterclasses for young composers, inspiring them to write music for two guitars. In April of 2020, the first four pieces written for them by Renne Nikolaou, Maddie Stephenson, Ty Katsarelis and Dimitris Makris, were presented on a live web concert and, at a later time, videotaped and uploaded online by ALEA III (Naxos 2021). More is yet to come ...  

As part of their collaboration with the historic recording label LYRA, they have released the CDs "Rhapsody for two guitars" including works by G. Gershwin, J. Rodrigo, A. Piazzolla, J. S. Bach, K. Giorginakis and "Mediterranean Echoes" with works by L. Boccherini, J. Rodrigo, M. de Falla, M. Gangi, P. Petit, and K. Grigoreas. Yannis Petridis recently has released the CD “Late 20th Century Music for Guitar” based on music by A. Ginastera, L. Berio, E. Carter και B. Britten (MOTIVO 2016). Their CDs have been received with very complimentary comments and excellent critiques by Greek and International Press. 

Their repertoire includes, among others, music for two guitars by Bach, Lawes, Telleman, Scarlatti, Giuliani, Sor, Carulli, Boccherini, Debussy, Granados, De Falla, Tedesco, Petit, Milhaud, Jolivet, Brouwer, Dyens, Ohana, Cordero, Rodrigo, Gershwin, Piazzolla, Gnatalli, Bellinati, Biberian, Gangi, Morel and music by Greek composers such as Hadjidakis, Antoniou, Koukos, Konstantinidis, Tenidis, Giorginakis, Boudounis and Grigoreas, some of which dedicated to them.

With their interpretation, Alexandra and Yannis have gained very flattering comments by important personalities of the Greek and International Guitar World.

Today, Yannis, after working as teaching assistant at Stony Brook University, USA, teaches at the American College of Greece - DEREE, at the Municipal Conservatory of Argos and both Alexandra and Yannis teach at the Conservatory of Palaio Faliro and the National Concervatory of Athens. Additionally Yannis has colaborated with the Head of the Music Department of the American College of Greece - DEREE, Leslie Jones, performed works for guitar and violoncello.

Alexandra and Yannis are Associates of the Heritage & Museums, Art, Culture and Education around the world.

Since 2011, they are the artistic directors of the Palaio Faliro Guitar Festival in Athens, Greece.

 

 

 

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