The Athens State Orchestra Young Musicians’ Academy (2016-)

The "Athens State Orchestra Young Musicians’ Academy" is an educational programme which provides musicians with professional training. It began in 2016, with generous support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation over its first two years in operation. The mission of the Academy and the outstanding orchestral musicians, soloists and conductors who teach its courses is to train instrumentalists to take up positions in orchestras around the world and to participate in international auditions and competitions. At the same time, its students have the opportunity to play with the full Athens State Orchestra in its performances at the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, in chamber music concerts, and in the educational programmes the KOA runs around Attica.

All of which is to say that the Athens State Orchestra Young Musicians' Academy offers young artists the valuable opportunity to prove, first and foremost to themselves, that they really want to commit themselves to this tough but infinitely rewarding and captivating profession, and to see whether and to what extent they can handle the demands of an artistic career at this level. At the end of the two-year programme, students that have attended the seminars and compulsory activities conscientiously receive a certificate of attendance.