About
Armonia Atenea is the new name for the Camerata Athens, which was founded in 1991 by the Society of Friends of Music on the occasion of the opening of the Athens concert hall Megaron as its house orchestra.
The ensemble has also been playing regularly in the new Onassis cultural center since 2011. The orchestra is a welcome guest at the major international stages and concert halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Palace Theater in Versailles, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Proms of the BBC, the Wigmore Hall in London or the Innsbruck Festival Weeks for the Elderly Music. After Neville Marriner, Christopher Warren-Green and Alexander Myrat, the Echo Klassik award winner George Petrou is currently the artistic director. Armonia Atenea works with famous guest conductors (including Fabio Biondi, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Entremont, Helmut Rilling, Heinrich Schiff, Stephen Kovacevich, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch) and renowned soloists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Joshua Bell, Leonidas Kavakos, Radu Lupu and Mischa Maisky. One of the current highlights is the debut at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival.
The orchestra is familiar with both historical and modern performance practice and deals with a wide range of concert repertoire from baroque music to contemporary music as well as opera and ballet music. It awards composition commissions and is also very committed to youth work.
Numerous recordings have been released on various labels. At DECCA, among others, the multiple award-winning recordings of Handel Alessandro and Hasses Siroe appeared. The orchestra is supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture as well as by the Megaron and Demergon and the Daskalopoulos Foundation for Culture and Development. The ensemble most recently played Handel's Publio Cornelio Scipione in the Theater an der Wien .