CAMERATA JUNIOR – THE YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF THE FRIENDS OF MUSIC, Orchestra in Residence at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), was founded in 2010 as part of the educational initiatives of the Friends of Music Society. Its aim is to cultivate young talented musicians, to foster a spirit of collaboration, and to educate them through the valuable experience of collective music-making.
The orchestra’s first teacher and conductor was violinist Dimitris Semsis (now its honorary director), who, through his teaching and encouragement, helped establish it as a breeding ground for future artists. Since October 2018, the orchestra is led by distinguished conductor Nikos Ηaliasas, with Aristea Tsichli as assistant conductor and Christina Kaminari as teaching assistant.
The orchestra consists of 80 members, aged 9 to 25, and operates on two levels: a children’s string ensemble (strings only) and a youth symphonic section. Its composition is continuously renewed, as new members are admitted through auditions, while older members often move on to professional careers. Participation is free of charge, and weekly rehearsals are hosted at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), where the orchestra also performs regularly.
Camerata Junior has also performed at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the Kalamata Dance Megaron, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Presidential Mansion, the Municipal Theater of Piraeus, the Athens Conservatoire, the Ilioupoli Film Club, and in the municipalities of Aigialeia, Kifisia, Zografou, Ymittos, and Ilion, as well as at the Nafplion and Andros International Festivals, in Argos, Trikala, Larissa, Sparta, Tinos, Chalki, Paros, Rhodes, and many more. The orchestra has performed works specially composed for it (by Giorgos Kouroupos, Panagiotis Fountas, Antonis Darlas, Nikos Xanthoulis, among others), and its rich repertoire includes many Greek and world premieres. Camerata Junior has collaborated with the MUSICA Mixed Choir of the Friends of Music, the Rosarte Children’s Choir, the Children’s Choir of the Friends of Music in Thessaloniki, and has performed with leading soloists such as Marianne Petersen, Daniel Blumenthal, Christos Dimaras, Dimitris Vamvas, Dimitris Kitsos, Spyros Mourikis, Andreas Chatzinikolaou, Stathis Karapanos, Sofia Kyanidou, Vassiliki Karagianni, and others.
In 2023, the Camerata Junior Music Ensembles were formed by members of the orchestra, under the direction and instruction of Aristea Tsichli, presenting concerts featuring both classical and contemporary repertoire.
Since 2022, the orchestra’s Major Sponsor has been Mrs. Fotini G. Livanou.
Nikos Ηaliasas
Born in Athens in 1968, Nikos Ηaliasas studied violin with Tatsis Apostolidis at the Athens Conservatoire, where he received his diploma in 1989. He pursued postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Howard Davis, and later at the Royal College of Music under Grigori Zhislin, supported by a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. During this time, he also took conducting courses at the Royal College of Music. He completed postgraduate studies in orchestral conducting at Trinity College of Music with Peter Stark, graduating in 1999. He has also attended masterclasses with Sergiu Celibidache and Jorma Panula. Since 2001, he has been a permanent member of the Athens State Orchestra, serving as a principal violinist. He has conducted the Athens and Thessaloniki State Orchestras, the Symphony Orchestra of the Greek National Opera, the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Thüringen Sinfoniker, the State Orchestras of Istanbul, Antalya, Izmir, Adana, and Bursa, the Eskişehir Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra in Växjö, Sweden, the Estonian Klaaspärlimäng Sinfonietta, the Astana Symphony Orchestra in Kazakhstan, the ERT Symphony Orchestra, and various chamber ensembles in Copenhagen, Bodrum, and Karşıyaka, as well as the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra and other smaller ensembles. He has conducted over 400 concerts in Greece and abroad. Since 2016, he has served as Artistic Director of the MousiKos Festival in the Dodecanese. Since 2018, he has been the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Camerata Junior – Youth Orchestra of the Friends of Music, and since 2022, the Artistic Director of the Chalki Festival “Dimitris Kremastinos.”
Aristea Tsichli
She was born in Athens, where she studied piano, advanced music theory, and cello (piano diploma, harmony, counterpoint, fugue diplomas, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music – Music Theory, Grade 8, cello diploma). She works as a piano and theory teacher and is actively involved in orchestration and transcription for orchestra and chamber music ensembles.
She studied orchestral conducting with Georgios Papadopoulos, obtaining the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music – Music Direction (Symphony Orchestra). She has worked in teaching and conducting both student and professional choirs and orchestras, with performances at the Lilian Voudouri Music Library at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), Rematia Theater in Chalandri, the “Mikis Theodorakis” Hall of the Cholargos City Hall, the Municipal Theater of Piraeus, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, among others.
She has participated in seminars on orchestral conducting and musical phenomenology with Konrad Von Abel (assistant to Sergiu Celibidache), working with the Filarmonica Târgu Mureș and Filarmonica Mihail Jora Bacău in Romania. In recent years, she has served as assistant conductor to Nikos Haliasas and is responsible for the Music Ensembles of the Camerata Junior – Youth Orchestra of the Friends of Music.
Christina Kaminari
She was born in Veria in 1993. At the age of 9, she began violin lessons at the Municipal Conservatory of Larissa with teacher Areti Theocharopoulou and later Apostolis Mitras. She attended the Music School of Larissa and the Contemporary Conservatory of Larissa. She holds a Harmony Diploma. In 2016–2017, she studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, in the viola class of James Creitz. In 2023, she received her Viola Diploma from the “Phaethon” Conservatory, with teacher Nikos Mandylas. In 2019, she graduated from the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University, in the Performance (Viola) stream, under the instruction of Professor Andreas Georgotas.
She has collaborated with orchestras and ensembles such as the Youth Orchestra of the Municipal Conservatory of Larissa, the Symphony Orchestra of the Old Philharmonic of Corfu, the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the Ionian University, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Athens Camerata (Friends of Music Society), Academica (Athens Conservatoire), Flex Ensemble (cond. Electra Vezyroglou), ELSON (cond. Dionysis Grammenos), and the Camerata Europaea (cond. Maria Makraki), with concerts at Carnegie Hall (New York), Berlin Konzerthaus, Great Hall of the People (Beijing), Bao Li Theatre (Shanghai), the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), Apollo Theater (Syros), Municipal Theater of Piraeus, the Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (Athens).
From 2017 to 2022, she participated in viola masterclasses with Bruno Giuranna and Roland Glassl (Bratschistentage, Trossingen 2016), Pauline Sachse (Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber”, Dresden 2018), and Chara Seira (13th Music Week of Lefkada, 2019), as well as chamber music seminars with Dimitris Chandrakis and Apollon Grammatikopoulos. In 2022, she took part in the Permanent Chamber Music Seminar of the Athens State Orchestra, studying under Angelos Liakakis and Titos Gouvelis as a member of a piano quintet.
She has also attended seminars and training programs of a pedagogical and educational nature (ISME 2013, “Attention Deficit in Teenagers – Pavlidis Method” 2015, “Violin–Viola Teaching Seminar” Deree College 2019). She has participated in recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Athens (Athens 2019–2022), and with the Greek band “Paidia tis Paleotitas” for the album Enthymion Neanikon Syntrofion (Corfu 2018).
Since 2021, she has been working as a Viola teacher at the Music High School of Ilion. She is a member of the Quadrivium String Quartet, founded in 2022, which remains active to this day with numerous collaborations and concerts in and outside Athens. Since September 2024, she has been serving as the Teaching Assistant of the Camerata Junior – Youth Orchestra of the Friends of Music.
