The internationally renowned Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO) will make its highly anticipated American debut at the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City in a one-night-only concert on Sunday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m.

Under the direction of its founder and artistic director, Dionysis Grammenos, the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra is comprised of 300 auditioned musicians, aged 18 to 26, from nearly 50 cities in Greece and across Europe. At Carnegie Hall, 95 GYSO musicians will present an eclectic evening of music that includes contemporary European and American popular symphonic works as well as a new approach to traditional Greek dance music through a symphonic perspective.

“We could not be more excited that the Young Greek Symphony Orchestra will make its American debut at Carnegie Hall this fall,” said Dionysis Grammenos, GYSO Founder and Artistic Director. “Approximately 70 years ago to the day of our concert, the great Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos led the New York Philharmonic in the Carnegie Hall debut of Nikos Skalkottas’s “Greek Dances.” Our performance of this work feels like a celebration of the legacy of Greek music and art that has played on this legendary stage. The fact that we are also making our American debut in New York on the same day as the New York Marathon, and just days before Election Day, also seems fitting. After all, Greece is the birthplace of marathons and democracy, so the timing couldn’t be more ideal.”

GYSO is supported by its founding donor, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and a range of individual and corporate donors, including: the Hellenic Parliament and the Ministry of Culture, the Bank of Greece, the Hellenic Initiative, AEGEAS, the Bodossaki Foundation, the George Petrocheilos Family Foundation, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, the Foundation for the Welfare of Social and Cultural Affairs and Aegean Airlines, as the official air carrier.

GYSO’s debut at Carnegie Hall this fall is organized by The Hellenic Initiative (THI), a global nonprofit organization that brings together Greeks and Philhellenes in the diaspora to invest in Greece’s future through programs focused on emergency relief, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

The GREEK YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (GYSO) was founded in 2017 by conductor Dionysis Grammenos, composed of young Greek musicians from all regions of Greece and abroad. Building on the respective European standards of national youth orchestras, the GYSO aims to identify, train and promote young Greek musicians in the symphonic and operatic repertoire, while providing them with the opportunity to participate in concerts and collaborate with internationally renowned artists, conductors, soloists and tutors. The work of the GYSO has been recognized internationally with its selection as a member of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras (EFNYO), where it is the only representation from Greece. This collaboration notably offers its musicians the opportunity to represent the Orchestra abroad, collaborating with other national youth orchestras, within the framework of the MusXchange program, which is supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. Notable GYSO performances include its two concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin, as part of the Young Euro Classic international festival. In 2021, the GYSO performed a selection of Skalkottas’ “Greek Dances” and Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. This concert took place as part of the Orchestra’s summer tour to Delphi, Corfu and Berlin, with an anniversary programme dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution, which took place under the auspices of HE the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. In 2023, the GYSO was invited for the opening concert of the festival, presenting works by Brahms, Liszt and Grøndahl. It is also the first orchestra to be invited by the Hellenic Parliament to perform at the Palace of the Parliament, within the framework of the European Conference of Speakers of the Parliaments of the Member States of the Council of Europe, in October 2021. The concert was broadcast live via television channels and the web in all European parliaments. The GYSO has performed in the halls of the Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, as well as in collaboration with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, where the orchestra’s musicians participated in concerts in Athens and Ravenna, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, under the direction of conductor Riccardo Muti. In July 2023, the GYSO was honored to receive an invitation from HE the President of the Hellenic Republic to present a concert at the Presidential Palace, as part of the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in Greece. Other highlights of the Orchestra’s trajectory include commissioning new works from Greek composers, as well as video recordings, the most important of which is Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, conducted by Johannes Debus, Music Director of the Canadian Opera Company. Leading international artists have performed with the GYSO, including Johannes Debus, Anna Fedorova, Anneleen Lenaerts, Daniel Ottensamer, Vassilis Varvaresos, Hyeyoon Park, Eivind Ringstad, Alexandra Soumm, and actor Aimilios Chilakis. With education at its core, the GYSO also conducts a series of activities to introduce young audiences to symphonic music, providing them with opportunities to interact creatively with members of the orchestra through open rehearsals, seminars and workshops. At the same time, GYSO is the first orchestra in Greece to use virtual reality technology through the innovative ELSON VR project, offering the audience a unique experience of viewing classical music concerts. Since 2020, GYSO has been the orchestra in residence at Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall.

The young Greek conductor DIONYSIS GRAMMENOS (GYSO Founder and Artistic Director) first came to international attention as a clarinetist, winning a place on the ECHO Rising Stars programme in 2013/14, which allowed him to perform with many major orchestras and in some of the world’s most prestigious venues. In 2016, he was awarded a conducting fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and since then has conducted around the world, both in concert halls and opera pits, including a last-minute appearance at the Megaron in Athens when he was invited to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Brahms 4, receiving a standing ovation and a huge reception from the musicians and audience. In July 2024, he will make his US debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He is regularly praised for his innate and instinctive musicianship, the clarity and effectiveness of his conducting, and his ability to shape the sound of the orchestra. His performances are deeply expressive, rich in colour and emotion, and he has been described by Die Welt as “one of the most promising stars of tomorrow”. In recent seasons, Grammenos has conducted orchestras such as the Cameristi della Scala, the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Ulster Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Strings, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Athens State Orchestra and the Scottish National Youth Orchestra, and with soloists such as Khatia Buniatishvili, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Ottensamer and Anna Fedorova. A passionate opera enthusiast, Grammenos made his opera conducting debut in Würzburg with Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi; He has assisted Johannes Debus in the Canadian Opera Company’s productions of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, as well as La Clemenza di Tito at the Aspen Music Festival and Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Theatre Vorpommern. In 2021/22 he was principal conductor of English Touring Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème, and in the summer of 2023 he made a highly successful Nevill Holt debut conducting Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Grammenos trained as a clarinetist at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, and in 2008 won the European Broadcasting Union’s Eurovision Grand Prix and the title of Young European Musician of the Year, the first wind player to be so awarded. As a soloist he has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie and Carnegie Hall, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio and ORF Vienna. As an ECHO Rising Star he has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Barbican Centre in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has also made recordings for Naïve and Warner Classics. In 2009 Grammenos was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts and the Gold Medal of the City of Athens.

After his studies in Weimar, he studied conducting at the University of Music in Würzburg with Ari Rasilainen and was invited to participate in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman, Bernhard Haitink, Patrick Summers and Robert Spano. In 2018, he was selected for the European Young Leaders programme, under the patronage of Jean-Claude Juncker, which aims to cultivate a European identity by engaging the most promising talents in initiatives designed to shape the future of Europe.

The world-renowned Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO) will make its highly anticipated U.S. debut on Sunday, November 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave (at 57th Street, NYC). For concert tickets, $39 to $149 (plus fees), visit CarnegieHall.org, call CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or visit the Carnegie Hall Box Office.