TheodoreKerkezos

Theodore Kerkezos has brought the saxophone into the great concert halls. The Greek soloist performs the entire repertoire for saxophone and orchestra and has extended it through commissions and dedications.

As a soloist he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Athens State Orchestra and the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra.

He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yuri Bashmet, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Simonov, Martyn Brabbins, Roberto Minczuk, Myron Michailidis and Michael Nyman.

His performing venues include Carnegie Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Great Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Megaron in Athens, the Beijing Concert Hall and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

Theodore Kerkezos studied at the Athens Conservatory with Babis Farantatos, then in Paris with Daniel Deffayet and in Bordeaux with Jean-Marie Londeix.

Iannis Xenakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Friedrich Cerha, Theodore Antoniou, Andrei Eshpai, Alkis Baltas and Pedro Iturralde have dedicated works to him. His saxophone method books have been published by Alphonse Leduc in Paris since 1999.

His recordings have appeared on Naxos, Onyx and Centaur, among them “Ballades for Saxophone and Orchestra” with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, “Impressions” with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and “Légende” with the London Symphony Orchestra under Yuri Simonov, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Gramophone honoured him with an Editor’s Choice. His recordings earned him two nominations for the 50th Grammy Awards.

Theodore Kerkezos served for twenty years as leading professor at the Athens Conservatory. As a visiting professor he gives masterclasses at the universities of Boston, Princeton, Louisiana and Ithaca, at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, at the conservatories of Boston, New England, Moscow and St Petersburg and at the Gnessin, Bratislava, Chopin and Kyiv academies. He plays instruments by Henri Selmer Paris.