05 December 2010

Dimitris Dekavallas


Multiple award winner Dimitris Dekavallas has already won a significant number of prizes in major competitions and is considered to be one of the most talented guitarists of his age.
Dimitris was born in Athens and began learning the guitar at the age of six. He was first taught at the National Conservatory of Athens and continued his studies at the Hellenic Conservatory. He graduated from the conservatory in 2002 with 1st Prize and was honoured with the Haralambos Ekmetzoglou music award at his graduation. He won 1st Prize in the IKY National Scholarship Foundation in Greece in 2004, which enabled him to come to London to the Royal Academy of Music. He studied under Micheal Lewin, Timothy Walker and John Mills. While there he won the Tebutt ExhibitionScholarship and in 2007 he received his Diploma of Postgraduate Performance (Distinction) and was given the Blyth Watson Award at his graduation. More recently, Dimitris was selected for the Barry Holmes Award by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
From the age of nine Dimitris has given solo performances all over Greece, including in the National Concert Hall in Athens. Since graduating from the Academy he has given recitals throughout the UK, Asia, USA, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Romania, Hungary and has been invited to perform as a soloist and give master-classes in international festivals such as Ripon International Music Festival, Abu Dhabi International Music and Arts Festival, Bolivar Hall International Festival, London International guitar festival, Volos International Guitar festival, Veria Guitar Festival, Tirgu Mures International Guitar Festival and many others. He has appeared as soloist with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie Orchestra in Germany, the Romanian Philharmonia, and in the UK the HCMC orchestra in Oxford and the Hertfordshire Philharmonia. Future plans include appearances at the Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre in London. He released a new recording Music for Oboe and Guitar in 2009 with the oboist Marios Argiros.
He has taken part in many international festival and competitions and has won more than 13 international and national prizes.
Dimitris has played in masterclasses with John Williams, Pepe Romero, David Russell, Eliot Fisk, Hubert Kppel, George Hatzinikos, Carlos Marchione, Fabio Zanon, Kostas Kotsiolis and Carlo Domeniconi. He has also played in workshops with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Dimitris is sponsored by D’ADDARIO using D’addario J46 strings on his G. Smallman guitar and he currently lives in London.
www.dimitrisdekavallas.com