DESPINA ARVANITIDIS

Greece

jury

Despina Arvanitidis, an accomplished guitarist, is an experienced and enthusiastic session musician, very often acknowledged for being very ambitious and hardworking, as well as for showing strong communication skills on many occasions.
Arvanitidis was born in Stockholm but originally comes from Greece, which makes her capable of combining two different cultures in music. She began her classical guitar studies under A. Hatzopoulos, continued at the Municipal Conservatory of Thessaloniki in the class of E. Assimakopoulos (Degree), and later on at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki in the class of Costas Cotsiolis (Diploma). She graduated with Bachelor's and Master of Fine Arts Degrees from the Mälardalen University of Sweden in the classical guitar class of R. Le Fleur and P. Skareng. She also has a Master's Degree in Guitar Pedagogy, supervised by prof. C. Cotsiolis, from the Department of Music Studies of Ionian University.

Arvanitidis is currently active educationally and pedagogically by preparing students for a higher level of studies, teaching classical guitar at the Music School of Katerini (Secondary Education), the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamaria, and the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki. She attended various seminars with famous guitarists and composers at international guitar festivals. She gave recitals in Greece and abroad and took in music festivals, musical theater performances, book presentations, album recordings, etc.