Athanasia Kontou (born *1995) is an award-winning composer and pianist, originally from Greece.

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She is a 2023 Ivor Novello Award nominee, for her monodrama Antigone: pure in her crime for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra. She is the 2019 winner of the prestigious Rushworth Composition Prize, awarded by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been commissioned by Ensemble 10/10, Psappha Ensemble, and pianist Dr Adam Swayne.

 

She has worked with ensemble recherche (Germany), Trio Estatico (Megumi Kasakawa, Paul Beckett, Jack Stulz), accordionist Miloš Milivojević, The Hallé Orchestra, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, The BBC Singers, The Elias String Quartet, and pianist Ian Pace. Works of hers have been performed in festivals in Basel (Switzerland), Stavenger (Norway), Montepulciano (Italy), New Music North West in Manchester, and Zeitströme in Darmstadt.

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In October ’23, she started her doctoral studies at the Univeristät für Musik and darstellende Kunst Wien (mdw). She was one of six applicants who got selected amongst nearly a hundred for the Doctor Artium course.  Her supervising team inludes Prof Clara Iannotta, and Dr Johannes Kretz (Head of the Artistic Research Centre of mdw). 

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Athanasia previously studied at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), in Manchester, UK, at the Masters of Music in Composition with an entrance scholarship. There, she completed the Master of Music in Composition (2017-2019) and the Postgraduate Diploma: Advanced Studies in Composition course (2019-2020, also admitted with an entrance scholarship and graduated with 90% Distinction). She learned with Prof Adam Gorb, Prof David Horne, and Dr Laura Bowler.  She is also a classically trained pianist (Diploma in Piano Performance, 2017), and holds a BSc in Computer Science (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).