Simos Papanas

Simos Papanas was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1979. He has studied violin, baroque violin, composition and mathematics at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Oberlin College and Yale University with Petar Arnaoudov, Taras Gabora, Erick Friedman (violin), Marilyn McDonald (baroque violin) and Christos Samaras (composition). 

He has been invited as a soloist by several orchestras including the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Geneva Camerata, Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Sofia Soloists, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Moments Musicaux (Taiwan).  He has recorded as a soloist for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS and Centaur. 

As a soloist as well as alongside musicians like Daniel Hope and Leonidas Kavakos he has performed in festivals as Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Athens Festival, Sommets Musicaux Gstaad, St. Petersburg International Violin Festival, Bristol Proms and Tokyo Music Festival.. and in concert halls like Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zurich and National Concert Hall Taipeh.

Working also as a composer, his compositions and his stage music have been performed and recorded around the world (US, Russia, Canada, Iran, Peru, Japan, Taiwan and most European countries).

Since 2003 he has been Concertmaster of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, becoming in 2013 also a member and one of the Concertmasters of Geneva Camerata.