BIOGRAPHY
Yannis Xylas Pianist and Conductor
Mr. Xylas was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied piano with Nikos Astrinidis and received his Diploma with Honors from the Macedonian Conservatory of Music. He has performed extensively in Greece, mainly in concerts for Two Pianos, premiering W.Bolcom’s Recuerdos in Greece, among other works, a concert that was televised. He was also rehearsal pianist and assistant chorus master for the Lyrical Opera Chorus of Thessaloniki for six years.
He currently resides in New York and has been associated with Mid-America Productions (American premiere of Theodorakis' s opera Elektra, Rossini’s Ermione, Medée and Taneyev’s opera Agamemnon) Opera Orchestra of New York, Miller Theatre (US Premiere of Oresteia by Xenakis) , New York Grand Opera and Lubo Opera (US premiere of Kalman's 1928 Operetta Die Herzogin von Chicago) as rehearsal pianist, chorus master and assistant conductor. In 1999 he made his Lincoln Center (Avery Fischer Hall) debut in New York in the triple capacity of performer, orchestrator and artistic director in a concert featuring Greek classical music. In 2002 he appeared in Washington’s Kennedy Center in a similar concert and in April 2010 he made his Carnegie Hall debut in the two pianos, percussion and chorus version of Carmina Burana.
He is also Vice President of the Hellenic Music Foundation and a freelance conductor and orchestrator. Since 2009 he has conducted the 80-piece Hellenic Music Foundation Orchestra and Soloists in excerpts from the operas Il Corsaro, Das Rheingold, Carmen, Le Cid, Hérodiade, Samson et Dalila, Tannhäuser, Di Walküre, Eine Nacht in Venedig, La Traviata, Falstaff, Nozze di Figaro, Les Contes d' Hoffmann, Faust, Guillaume Tell, Macbeth, Tristan und Isolde, Boris Godunov, Thais, Armida, I Vespri Siciliani, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung, Turandot, Lohengrin, Maria Stuarda, La donna del lago, Ermione, Zirkusprinzessin & Die Lustige Witwe as well as Messiah, Verdi's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Orff's Carmina Burana, Orchestral songs by Richard Strauss and Mahler's 8th Symphony. He has also performed with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra the 2nd Piano Concerto and Carnaval des Animaux by C. Saint-Saëns as well as the Double Piano Concerto in C minor by J.S. Bach.
He has performed extensively in the USA, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Poland and Spain, collaborating with singers, instrumentalists and orchestras, mastering an extensive repertoire of opera, oratorio, operetta, lied and specializing in rarely performed music and Greek Classical music. As an organist he has played the great organs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Bartholomew’s.
Last, but not least, he holds a Geology Degree from the Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki and a Graduate Gemologist Diploma.
REPERTOIRE
EDUCATION: Piano Diploma with Honors, Macedonian Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Greece.Courses included: Piano, Theory, Harmony, Solfege, Dictee, History of Music, Choir, Morphology (Forms of Musical composition – Analysis), Diction (German, French and Italian), Chamber Music, Practical Teaching, Ancient Greece as an inspiration to Western Music, History of Greek Music.
EXPERIENCE: 1996-Present: Resides in New York and collaborates with various regional Opera companies as well as individual singers in a varied repertoire that includes the following: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Aida, Cosi fan Tutte, Tosca, L’ Elisir d’ Amore, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Giovanni, Don Carlo, Ariadne auf Naxos, Salome, Zauberflote, L’Amico Fritz, Macbeth, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Walküre, Adriana Lecouvreur, Andrea Chenier, Die Fledermaus, Suor Angelica, Porgy and Bess, Salome as well as rarities such as: Die Agyptische Helena, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Capriccio, Les Huguenots, La Juive, Zanetto and Silvano (by Mascagni), Medea, La Battaglia di Legnano, Attila, Il Corsaro, Alzira, I Masnadieri, L’Assedio di Corinto, Ermione, Therese, Oresteia (by Xenakis), Fosca (by Carlos Gomes), Agamemnon (by Taneyev), Vipern (by Joost), Gräfin Mariza, Csardasfürstin and Die Herzogin von Chicago (by Emmerich Kalman).
Broadway Repertoire: Has worked extensively in productions with piano of extended excerpts from the following shows (as well as working individually with singers and in recitals): Porgy and Bess, Kismet, West Side Story, Oklahoma, Showboat, Annie get your gun, Anything Goes, Girl Crazy, Phantom of the Opera, Mame, La Cage aux Folles, Sound of Music, 42nd Street, Chorus Line, Cabaret, Babes in Arms, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof, Song of Norway, South Pacific.
Mr. Xylas is an expert in Greek Music. He has been performing and premiering works of Greek composers extensively: Art songs by N. Astrinidis and M. Kalomoiris, Mikis Theodorakis’ Opera Elektra that received its American Premiere at Carnegie Hall, Lysistrata, the Cello Suite and several of his Art songs.
He made his Avery Fischer Hall debut in May, 1999 performing and orchestrating music for an all Greek Classical music program. He has also toured throughout Greece, Spain, India, China, Indonesia, Poland and the Czech Republic performing mainly with singers and instrumentalists. In the USA he has toured extensively in New York, Massachusets, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Louisiana. Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and California playing the harpsichord with touring opera companies or recitals for singers. Upcoming trips will bring Mr. Xylas to the Honduras and Cyprus.
He recently appeared at CARNEGIE HALL Isaac Stern Auditorium, has performed Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2, Carnaval des Animaux and Bach’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra BWV1060 and appeared in Washington’s Kennedy Center (October 2002) in a concert featuring Greek Classical music.
As an orchestrator, he has orchestrated and arranged several Greek classical and popular songs for smaller ensembles as well as several old American songs from Movies for full orchestra and several Latin American songs for full orchestra and a Greek classical work entitled Danse Antillaise for two pianos and big orchestra.
As an organist he has played the great organs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Bartholomew’s in New York and was the soloist for the “Festliches Praeludium” of Richard Strauss.
1989-1996: Rehearsal Pianist and Assistant Chorus Master for the Lyrical Chorus of the Opera of Thessaloniki. Prepared (and performed touring Greece) choruses as well as ensembles from: Cavalleria Rusticana, Carmen, Aida, Vespri Siciliani, Traviata, Roberto Devereux, Trovatore, Rigoletto, Nabucco, I Lombardi, Prince Igor, Norma, Lohengrin, Giovanna D’ Arco, Ernani, Messiah, Die Schöpfung, Czardasfürstin, Die Lustige Witwe, Gräfin Maritza, Orphee aux Enfers, as well as Greek Operas and Operettas.
1992-1996: Performed in a series of concerts for Two Pianos (with a Bulgarian Pianist) in Greece works by Liszt, Saint-Saens, Lutoslawsky, Stravinsky, Infante, Astrinidis, Infante, Milhaud, Brahms, Reger, Messiaen, Shostakovitch, Ravel as well as the premiere in Greece of Recuerdos by William Bolcom, a concert which was televised.
OTHER SKILLS: Foreign Languages: Fluent in English, Greek and proficient in French
(Certificat de la Langue Francaise, Institut Francais de Thessaloniki ) and Italian.
Mr. Xylas was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied piano with Nikos Astrinidis and received his Diploma with Honors from the Macedonian Conservatory of Music. He has performed extensively in Greece, mainly in concerts for Two Pianos, premiering W.Bolcom’s Recuerdos in Greece, among other works, a concert that was televised. He was also rehearsal pianist and assistant chorus master for the Lyrical Opera Chorus of Thessaloniki for six years.
He currently resides in New York and has been associated with Mid-America Productions (American premiere of Theodorakis' s opera Elektra, Rossini’s Ermione, Medée and Taneyev’s opera Agamemnon) Opera Orchestra of New York, Miller Theatre (US Premiere of Oresteia by Xenakis) , New York Grand Opera and Lubo Opera (US premiere of Kalman's 1928 Operetta Die Herzogin von Chicago) as rehearsal pianist, chorus master and assistant conductor. In 1999 he made his Lincoln Center (Avery Fischer Hall) debut in New York in the triple capacity of performer, orchestrator and artistic director in a concert featuring Greek classical music. In 2002 he appeared in Washington’s Kennedy Center in a similar concert and in April 2010 he made his Carnegie Hall debut in the two pianos, percussion and chorus version of Carmina Burana.
He is also Vice President of the Hellenic Music Foundation and a freelance conductor and orchestrator. Since 2009 he has conducted the 80-piece Hellenic Music Foundation Orchestra and Soloists in excerpts from the operas Il Corsaro, Das Rheingold, Carmen, Le Cid, Hérodiade, Samson et Dalila, Tannhäuser, Di Walküre, Eine Nacht in Venedig, La Traviata, Falstaff, Nozze di Figaro, Les Contes d' Hoffmann, Faust, Guillaume Tell, Macbeth, Tristan und Isolde, Boris Godunov, Thais, Armida, I Vespri Siciliani, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung, Turandot, Lohengrin, Maria Stuarda, La donna del lago, Ermione, Zirkusprinzessin & Die Lustige Witwe as well as Messiah, Verdi's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Orff's Carmina Burana, Orchestral songs by Richard Strauss and Mahler's 8th Symphony. He has also performed with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra the 2nd Piano Concerto and Carnaval des Animaux by C. Saint-Saëns as well as the Double Piano Concerto in C minor by J.S. Bach.
He has performed extensively in the USA, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Poland and Spain, collaborating with singers, instrumentalists and orchestras, mastering an extensive repertoire of opera, oratorio, operetta, lied and specializing in rarely performed music and Greek Classical music. As an organist he has played the great organs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Bartholomew’s.
Last, but not least, he holds a Geology Degree from the Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki and a Graduate Gemologist Diploma.
REPERTOIRE
EDUCATION: Piano Diploma with Honors, Macedonian Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Greece.Courses included: Piano, Theory, Harmony, Solfege, Dictee, History of Music, Choir, Morphology (Forms of Musical composition – Analysis), Diction (German, French and Italian), Chamber Music, Practical Teaching, Ancient Greece as an inspiration to Western Music, History of Greek Music.
EXPERIENCE: 1996-Present: Resides in New York and collaborates with various regional Opera companies as well as individual singers in a varied repertoire that includes the following: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Aida, Cosi fan Tutte, Tosca, L’ Elisir d’ Amore, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Giovanni, Don Carlo, Ariadne auf Naxos, Salome, Zauberflote, L’Amico Fritz, Macbeth, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Walküre, Adriana Lecouvreur, Andrea Chenier, Die Fledermaus, Suor Angelica, Porgy and Bess, Salome as well as rarities such as: Die Agyptische Helena, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Capriccio, Les Huguenots, La Juive, Zanetto and Silvano (by Mascagni), Medea, La Battaglia di Legnano, Attila, Il Corsaro, Alzira, I Masnadieri, L’Assedio di Corinto, Ermione, Therese, Oresteia (by Xenakis), Fosca (by Carlos Gomes), Agamemnon (by Taneyev), Vipern (by Joost), Gräfin Mariza, Csardasfürstin and Die Herzogin von Chicago (by Emmerich Kalman).
Broadway Repertoire: Has worked extensively in productions with piano of extended excerpts from the following shows (as well as working individually with singers and in recitals): Porgy and Bess, Kismet, West Side Story, Oklahoma, Showboat, Annie get your gun, Anything Goes, Girl Crazy, Phantom of the Opera, Mame, La Cage aux Folles, Sound of Music, 42nd Street, Chorus Line, Cabaret, Babes in Arms, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof, Song of Norway, South Pacific.
Mr. Xylas is an expert in Greek Music. He has been performing and premiering works of Greek composers extensively: Art songs by N. Astrinidis and M. Kalomoiris, Mikis Theodorakis’ Opera Elektra that received its American Premiere at Carnegie Hall, Lysistrata, the Cello Suite and several of his Art songs.
He made his Avery Fischer Hall debut in May, 1999 performing and orchestrating music for an all Greek Classical music program. He has also toured throughout Greece, Spain, India, China, Indonesia, Poland and the Czech Republic performing mainly with singers and instrumentalists. In the USA he has toured extensively in New York, Massachusets, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Louisiana. Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and California playing the harpsichord with touring opera companies or recitals for singers. Upcoming trips will bring Mr. Xylas to the Honduras and Cyprus.
He recently appeared at CARNEGIE HALL Isaac Stern Auditorium, has performed Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2, Carnaval des Animaux and Bach’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra BWV1060 and appeared in Washington’s Kennedy Center (October 2002) in a concert featuring Greek Classical music.
As an orchestrator, he has orchestrated and arranged several Greek classical and popular songs for smaller ensembles as well as several old American songs from Movies for full orchestra and several Latin American songs for full orchestra and a Greek classical work entitled Danse Antillaise for two pianos and big orchestra.
As an organist he has played the great organs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Bartholomew’s in New York and was the soloist for the “Festliches Praeludium” of Richard Strauss.
1989-1996: Rehearsal Pianist and Assistant Chorus Master for the Lyrical Chorus of the Opera of Thessaloniki. Prepared (and performed touring Greece) choruses as well as ensembles from: Cavalleria Rusticana, Carmen, Aida, Vespri Siciliani, Traviata, Roberto Devereux, Trovatore, Rigoletto, Nabucco, I Lombardi, Prince Igor, Norma, Lohengrin, Giovanna D’ Arco, Ernani, Messiah, Die Schöpfung, Czardasfürstin, Die Lustige Witwe, Gräfin Maritza, Orphee aux Enfers, as well as Greek Operas and Operettas.
1992-1996: Performed in a series of concerts for Two Pianos (with a Bulgarian Pianist) in Greece works by Liszt, Saint-Saens, Lutoslawsky, Stravinsky, Infante, Astrinidis, Infante, Milhaud, Brahms, Reger, Messiaen, Shostakovitch, Ravel as well as the premiere in Greece of Recuerdos by William Bolcom, a concert which was televised.
OTHER SKILLS: Foreign Languages: Fluent in English, Greek and proficient in French
(Certificat de la Langue Francaise, Institut Francais de Thessaloniki ) and Italian.
