Vassilis Christopoulos is one of Greece’s most renowned conductors,
equally at home on the concert podium as in the opera pit.
As of September 2023, he is Chief Conductor of Graz Opera, where his
first two opera productions – Verdi's Macbeth and Rigoletto,
Peter Eötvös's Sleepless, Berg's Wozzeck, and Strauss' Der
Rosenkavalier – were greeted with critical acclaim. He is especially
praised for his sensitive and compelling accompaniment, for extracting a
wide, nuanced dynamic range out of the orchestra, for producing a
transparent sound as well as “dark, almost Rembrandtesque colours” (Kleine
Zeitung).
In 2022 he gave his successful US début with Eugene Onegin during
San Francisco Opera’s Centennial Season.
In 2017 he inaugurated Greek National Opera’s new venue in Athens with
the company’s first ever Elektra by Richard Strauss. The
production turned out to be a triumph and Christopoulos has been welcomed
back as a guest conductor for several productions since, including Lady
Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Shostakovich, Bluebeard’s
Castle by Bartók, and Madama Butterfly. In 2020 he was the
“chief driving force” behind the first Wozzeck in the
GNO’s history, a production with which the company “arrived on the
international stage” (Financial Times).
He has conducted prestigious orchestras such as the Philharmonia
Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra, German State Philharmonic, New Japan
Philharmonic, Korean National Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony
Orchestra, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestras of Frankfurt
(HR-Sinfonieorchester), Saarbrücken (Deutsche Radio Philharmonie),
Hannover (NDR Radiophilharmonie), and Cologne (WDR Funkhausorchester), the
Nuremberg State Philharmonic, the State Orchestras of Darmstadt, Kassel
and Wiesbaden, Bremen Philharmonic, Orchestre National des Pays de la
Loire, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, as
well as all major Greek orchestras.
As Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra from 2011 to 2014, he
raised the standard of performance dramatically. Reviews became
consistently enthusiastic, praising him as “great reformer”; ticket sales
doubled despite the harsh financial crisis. Under his direction, the
Orchestra supported young soloists and composers, commissioning and
premièring 14 new compositions in three years; performed in virtually
every corner of Greece including many remote islands; introduced a
wide-ranging social and educational program; and won major national and
European design awards for its new image.
From 2005 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Southwest German
Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance, again responsible for significant and
unanimously recognized improvement in performance: under his artistic
leadership, the number of subscribers exceeded the mark of 2.500 for the
first time in the orchestra's history (from a small town population of
app. 85.000); the Orchestra acquired new permanent posts, and toured with
great success at renowned festivals and concert halls in Switzerland,
Italy, Austria, Greece, France, Spain, China, Japan, as well as throughout
Germany.
In 2013, he was awarded Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters
(Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Republic.
In 2016 he was appointed Professor of Conducting at the University of
Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.
Vassilis Christopoulos studied oboe and music theory at the Athens
Conservatory and orchestral conducting at the “Hochschule für Musik” in
Munich with Prof. Hermann Michael. He was an oboist with the Greek Radio
Symphony Orchestra for three years.
He is fluent in seven languages.
August 2025