Spyros Mourikis

Principal Clarinet, Athens State Orchestra

Spyros Mourikis was born in 1974 and started his lessons with Charalambos Farantatos at the Athens Concervatory where he got his Diploma with the Gold Prize. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatory with Michel Arrignon and Maurice Bourgue, graduating with the First Prize in 1995. In 1997, he won the first Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition in Odense, while the same year he also won the Young Artist Prize of the Greek Association of Theatre and Music Reviewers.

As a soloist, he regularly performs with all the orchestras in Greece, including the Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Armonia Atenea, and Greek National Radio Symphony, and he has given concerts with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Azerbaijan National Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, European Union Wind Ensemble, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Southwest Germany Philharmonic Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Aeterna Orchestra.

He is invited as a jury member in numerous international clarinet competitions, such as the “Carl Nielsen” and “Gheorghi Dima” competitions and has given masterclasses and lectures in Music Academies and foundations all over Europe and the United States, including the Nielsen Society, Bremen Hochschule, Manhattan School of Music, Vandoren Music House, and Paderewski Music Academy. His discography includes the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets with the String Quartet of the Paris Opera Bastille (Agora), the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto with the Odense Symphony Orchestra (Danish Radio), and Reflexion des Preludes for clarinet and orchestra by the Danish composer Erik Bach with the Symphony Orchestra of Aarhus (Da Capo).

He has worked the Principal Clarinetist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Claudio Abbado. For the last few years, he has served as the Principal Clarinetist of the Armonia Atenea Orchestra with period instruments and has also performed as a soloist with period clarinets.

He is currently playing with the MusicA eterna Orchestra as a guest solo clarinetist.
He is solo clarinetist at the Athens State Orchestra and professor of clarinet at the Athens Conservatory.

Nicolas Baldeyrou

Principal Clarinet, Radio France Philharmonic

Nicolas Baldeyrou began learning clarinet at the age of eight years old. He studied, successively, at the Conservatoire Municipal du Kremlin-Bicêtre (under Pierre Billaud), the Conservatoire de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (under Véronique Fèvre), and at the age of 14, the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (under Michel Arrignon and Jérôme Julien-Laferrière).  After unanimous vote, he was awarded the Léon Leblanc special prize for bass clarinet (under Jean-Noël Crocq) before beginning his final postgraduate studies.

After graduating, he won three high-level awards: the prestigious ARD International Music Competition (Munich) in 1998, the Dos Hermanas International Clarinet Competition (Spain) in 1999 and the ICA Young Artist Competition (USA) in 2001.  He was also laureate of the international prizes Carl Nielsen (Odense) and the Jeunesses Musicales (Bucarest), the Révélations de l’Adami, the Natixis Foundation, the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, and the extremely prestigious “Rising Star” programme, in 2004.

Successively clarinet soloist with the European Union Youth Orchestra where he worked with Bernard Haitink, Carlo Maria Giulini and Sir Colin Davis from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to Claudio Abbado and the Orchestre National de France conducted by Kurt Masur, he has since led a triple career as soloist, teacher and orchestra musician at the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra headed by Myung-Whun Chung, where he was appointed first clarinet in 2011. Since 2006 he has taught at the Lyon Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse.

Nicolas Baldeyrou is one of the most prominent clarinettists of his generation, invited to perform as soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Tokyo, Prague and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the Sofia Symphony Orchestra, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Orchestre d’Auvergne and the Orchestre de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur. He is regularly invited to recitals at Carnegie Hall, New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique à Paris, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo, the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory , as well as performing in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mexico.

He remains active in chamber music, performing regularly with artists such as Bertrand Chamayou, Svetlin Roussev, Antoine Tamestit, Marc Coppey, François Salque, Henri Demarquette, Alexis Descharmes, Nora Cismondi, Alexeï Ogrintchouk, David Walter, David Guerrier, Julien Hardy, the Moraguès Quintette, the Ébène, Modigliani, Psophos, Ysaÿe, Aviv, Carmina, Minguet, Talich, and Vogler quartets.

Nicolas Baldeyrou is actively involved in contemporary music; the music of his time. In 2003, Éric Tanguy dedicated a solo clarinet piece to him, Capriccio, as did Jacques Lenot with the piece Tormentoso. He has also worked with several contemporary music ensembles such as 2E2M, Court-Circuit, TM+, Alternance, Ars Nova, and Sillage.

His passion for exploring new repertoires and his commitment to authenticity in his performances led him naturally towards an interest in period instruments. He is regularly invited to perform by Marc Minkowski (Les Musiciens du Louvre), by Emmanuelle Haïm (Le Concert d’Astrée ensemble) and Emmanuel Krivine (La Chambre Philharmonique).

Nicholas is an endorser for Buffet Crampon, and thus contributes to the development of the clarinet and to the influence of the école française throughout the world.

Δίδακτρα Μαθημάτων – Participation Terms and Fees »

Αίτηση Συμμετοχής – Application Form »