Vassilis Varvaresos

“Varvaresos not only has a natural yet finely honed technique, it springs as one with the wide scope of profound musicianship.

Varvaresos engaged his audience with a performance that sizzled from start to finish.” - New York Concert Review
“What I particularly enjoy is the balance he gets between virtuosity and musicality…whatever Varvaresos plays, it is always really beautiful” - Cyprien Katsaris, BBC Magazine

Vassilis Varvaresos has established himself as a versatile and internationally active pianist, combining a distinguished performing career with a wide-ranging artistic profile. Winner of the First Prize at the 1998 Young Concert Artists International Auditions at the age of fourteen, he quickly gained international recognition, with début recitals in New York and Washington receiving critical acclaim. Since his American début at fifteen, he has performed extensively throughout the United States, appearing in major venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill and Zankel Halls, the Morgan Library in New York, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Kennedy Center in Washington. He was subsequently invited to perform at the White House for President Barack Obama.
In Europe, Varvaresos has appeared in leading concert halls including the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. His recital and concerto engagements have brought him to major international festivals such as the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Enescu Festival, the Festival des Arcs, the Musicales du Golfe, the SenLiszt Festival of the György Cziffra Foundation, and the Athens Festival. His concerto repertoire includes works by Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Ravel, performed with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Normandie, the Freiburg Symphony Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. Notable appearances include performances at the Istanbul Music Festival and engagements across Germany and Greece.
Varvaresos has represented Greece internationally, including at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and has been recognised as “Most Promising Young Greek Artist” by the Critics’ Association of Greece. He is also a laureate of the George Enescu International Piano Competition (2014) and the Piano Masters Competition in Monte Carlo (2015).
An accomplished chamber musician, he has appeared at venues such as BOZAR in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Diligentia Theatre in The Hague, and the Gasteig in Munich. His collaborators include distinguished musicians such as Michel Dalberto, Henri Demarquette, Nicolas Dautricourt, Noé Inui, Ella van Poucke, and Anastasia Kobekina.
Alongside his performing career, Varvaresos is active as a composer, having written music for ten films and several television series, and as an author, with his book Departure From the Functionality of Syntax receiving the Scholastic Distinction Award at the Juilliard School. He holds Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School, and completed the prestigious Diplôme d’Artiste-Interprète at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris under the guidance of Michel Dalberto.
His recent discography includes the album V for Valse, released by Aparté, featuring works by Liszt, Scriabin, Schumann, and Ravel. He has also recorded for Navis Classics in collaboration with violinist Noé Inui and baritone Dimitris Tiliakos.