Armonia Atenea, (former Athens Camerata) was founded in 1991 by the Friends of Music Society of Athens and is currently considered one of the most active and diverse European ensembles with an important presence in the international music scene.
As resident at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, since its foundation, and affiliated to the Onassis Cultural Centre, since 2011, AA has developed a multifaceted artistic identity. The Orchestra performs an extremely wide repertoire, both on period and modern instruments, presenting concerts, opera, music theatre and ballet productions.
The artistic director of AA is the Echo Klassik winning conductor George Petrou. Former artistic directors include sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Warren-Green and Alexander Myrat.
Armonia Atenea is today a major ambassador of contemporary Greek culture, being the only Greek ensemble that performs regularly at the most significant European concert halls, theatres and festivals, such as the Musikverein and the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Bozar in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Opèra de Monte-Carlo, the Palau de la Mùsica in Barcelona. Armonia Atenea is the first Greek Orchestra to appear at the prestigious BBC Proms, in 2014.
In Athens, AA holds very successful concert cycles at Megaron and the Onassis Cultural Centre. Furthermore, it appears every year at the Athens Festival, presenting concerts and opera productions.
The Orchestra has been recording for several of the world's leading record labels (DECCA, Sony Classical, MDG, ECM). For its most recent releases, AA has repeatedly received the most desirable international awards: Diapason d’ Or, Gramophone-Editor's Choice, BBC Music Magazine - Recording of the Month, CHOC - Classica, as well as the "Best Recording of the Year" award in the International Opera Awards 2013. Also, the viewers of MEZZO TV voted the opera Alessandro by Handel, as the best opera production of 2013.
The Orchestra has collaborated with famous conductors and soloists such as Salvatore Accardo, Philippe Entremond, Martha Argerich, Karina Gauvin, Matthias Goerne, Vivica Genaux, Leonidas Kavakos, Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich, Julia Leszhneva, Radu Lupu, Misha Maiski, Yuri Bashmet, Sir Jehudi Menuhin, Joshua Bell, Fabio Biondi, John Williams, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arturo Sandoval, Max Emanuel Cencic, Heinrich Schiff, Thomas Hangelbrock and Christopher Hogwood.
The activity of Armonia Atenea in the field of contemporary music is also remarkable: the Orchestra has premiered and recorded works of many contemporary composers (Antoniou, Karaindrou, Koumentakis, Couroupos, Kypourgos, Mantzaros, Marangopoulos, Mikroutsikos, Papadimitriou, Sicilianos, Hatzis, Hadjidakis, Kancheli, Koukos, Tavener) , many of which were composed especially for AA.
The educational activities were always of great importance for AA. Since its foundation the Orchestra has presented many concerts and ground breaking educational programmes all over Greece.
In 1996 the Orchestra was awarded the Music Prize of the Greek Critics Union for its artistic and educational work.
Armonia Atenea is supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
