KOSTAS SISKOS

Kostas Siskos was born on the island of Corfu, Greece in 1973 and began studying the French Horn at the age of 11 at “Kapodistrias” Symphonic Band of Corfu. Later, in 1990, he continued his studies in Athens, at “Raimondi” Conservatory with Spyros Kessaris, at the time Principal Horn at the National Opera of Greece.  In 1994 he concluded his studies with an honours Diploma on the French Horn at “Orfeion” Conservatory. During the next years he took part in workshops with Francis Orval, Ab Koster and Dennis Wick. In 2000 he began the Post Graduate course on Horn at the University for Music and the Performing Arts, Graz, Austria under the tutelage of Professor Hector McDonald (Solohornist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra).  During his study he received instruction on the modern Double Horn, the Vienna Horn and the Natural Horn. In 2002 he graduated with honours.

From 2000 till 2003 Kostas Siskos held the position of the Principal Horn in the National Opera Orchestra. Since 2004 he has been Principal Horn of the Athens State Orchestra. For the past 20 years he has also been a regular substitute with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on Vienna Horn, has participated in productions of the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Concentus Musicus, under the baton of Maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Stefan Gotfried and others, on the Natural Horn, the Konzertverein Chamber Orchestra of Vienna, the National Opera Orchestra of Prague and the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra of Istanbul.

Chamber Music has also been a very important part of Mr Siskos’ activities since his early days in Athens. From 1997 to 1999 he was a member of the “Tal” Woodwind Quintet and during this period recorded several Greek compositions later released on CD. He was a member of the Athens State Orchestra Woodwind Quintet and has been participating in the “Metallon” Brass Ensemble since 2004 with concerts all over Greece. Kostas Siskos has been for many years an active pedagogue, with a particular emphasis on teaching the very young. Since 1997 he has been teaching at concervatories in Athens like “Athenaeum” and “Nakas” with a constant and long-term collaboration since 1997 with the Athens “Diethnes Conservatory”. In the year 2000 he began teaching at the “Ionian Conservatory” in Corfu, another long-term and fruitful collaboration. During his teaching career more than 25 students have graduated form the concervatories he has been teaching at and many of them have enjoyed much success holding positions in several Greek as well as Europen orchestras. Mr. Siskos has been tireless in his efforts to organise workshops and symposiums in Athens both for his students as well as for horn players throughout Greece, students and professionals alike. Among those he has invited to Greece are Prof. Francis Orval, Prof. Hector McDonald, Simone Baroncini and the world renowned Prof. Hermann Baumann. His goal, for the past 20 years, has been to create a bridge between the Greek music scene and the European musical capitals.