A native of Greece, MARIA ASTERIADOU is an acclaimed soloist and chamber musician highly praised as an artist with intense personality, virtuosic flair and beautiful tone.

Maria Asteriadou has performed in major halls throughout the United States and Canada as well as Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. Her orchestra engagements include appearances with the Moscow Radio Symphony, Academy of St. Martin of the Fields, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, Stuttgart Kamerata, Luxembourg Philharmonia, Bucharest Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi Moldavi Romania, Iasi Philharmonic Romania, Manhattan School Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Chamber Academy, Athens State Orchestra, Kamerata (Athens Chamber Orchestra) as well as the Thessaloniki State and City Orchestras.

Her love for her native Greece and her enthusiasm for new music has resulted in prestigious premiere performances of works by many of Greece’s most important composers such as Manos Hadzidakis, Perikles Koukos, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Emilios Riadis, Christos Samaras, Yiorgos Sicilianos, Nikos Skalkottas, as well as American born Greek composer George Tsontakis.

As an active chamber musician, Maria Asteriadou has collaborated with members of the New York Philharmonic and performs regularly in Festivals and Summer Music Institutes. Together with violinist Kurt Nikkanen founded the Elektra Chamber Players an ensemble comprised of performers from the great orchestras and conservatories of New York City.

The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, Maria Asteriadou won first prize in performance from the State Conservatory in Greece as well as top prize in the Maria Callas International Piano Competition. Maria Asteriadou enjoys the distinction of being the only pianist selected from the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg to perform in honor of the composer-conductor Pierre Boulez in Baden Baden, Germany. Both her Geneva debut recital, as well as her debut at Weill Hall in New York’s Carnegie Hall, for which she won the sponsoring competitions, were greeted with rave reviews. In 1992 she won the Dora Zaslovsky piano competition at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and consequently was selected to collaborate with the renowned conductor, Christopher Keene in a critically acclaimed performance of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.

With violinist George Demertzis, Maria Asteriadou has recorded the complete piano and string chamber works by Nikos Skalkottas and the complete violin and piano works by Carl Nielsen for BIS (recording label). On the same label she has also recorded the Concertino for two pianos by Nikos Skalkottas. Other CD recordings include works by Greek composers Yiorgos Sicilianos, Emilios Riadis, Dimitri Mitropoulos as well as American composer Ron Wasserman. Maria Asteriadou has been heard frequently in live performances on radio and television in Europe and in the United States, including the WQXR-FM with Robert Sherman.

Maria Asteriadou holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Constance Keene. She received her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, as a scholarship student of Jacob Lateiner. Following her undergraduate studies at the State Conservatory of Music in Thessaloniki, Greece, Maria Asteriadou was accepted at the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg, Germany as a student of Tibor Hazay and received her Graduate Soloist Diploma with high honors. She has also worked with Gyorgy Sebok, Richard Goode, Domna Evnouchidou and Vitalji Margulis.

In addition to her performing career Maria Asteriadou is also an energetic and passionate teacher. She has been faculty at the Algonquin International Music Institute in Canada, the Summer Arts Institute in University of Michigan and the Summer Music Academy in Athytos, Greece. From 1992 to 2002, she has been the Artistic and Chamber Music Director of the Silver Bay Summer Music Festival in New York. She has also served as Chamber Music Coach at the New York Piano Competition. Maria Asteriadou is is on the Piano and Chamber Music faculty of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She is also teaching at the Manhattan School of Music, in the College and Preparatory Division.

“Chance is a star at a Debut”
“Intense personality and the muscle to back it up. To these she adds the split personality necessary to successful performance: the ability to be involved and at the same time to remain cool. Something else different about Ms. Asteriadou is that she seems to enjoy the music even more than playing the piano - something not always encountered in today’s young virtuosos.”
New York Times, Bernard Holland

“Maria Asteriadou showed unusual poise, confident technique and an intimate contact with style usually reserved for mature professionals and very few of them”
New York Times, Bernard Holland

“Glänzende Visitenkarte einr jungen Pianistin” (Sparkling visiting card of a young pianist)
“A highly successful recital. This young Greek virtuosa enchanted the public so much that they would not let her leave the hall until she rewarded them with two encores.”
Schwäbische Zeitung, Germany

“Versatile Pianist”
“Her tone was resplendent and packed with gusto. The versatile pianist made a strong impression with the beauty of her sound.”
Tagespost, Austria

“The deft touch, technical ease are part of the superior skills possessed by Maria Asteriadou.”
Vradini Journal, Greece

“Her performance left the audience breathless. Her mastery of the instrument is colored by richness of sound with underlying variety of expression and personality.”
Thessaloniki Post, Greece

“The most complete work for piano and orchestra by Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, finds in the hands of Maria Asteriadou the most expressive interpretation. The virtuosity of the soloist, continuously present, gave the work luster, weight and occasionally a few strokes of cruelty, when the presentation of the Fdies Irae theme demanded it.”
Kathimerini Journal, Greece

“The clear brightness of sound, the suggestively multidimensional transparency of the transposition of the musical reflection in the Schnittke concerto, characterized by a musical, dramatical suspense, made Maria Asteriadou the star of the evening and brought out of her an excellent maturity. Her total commitment to music electrified Kamerata conducted by Alexandros Myrat.”
Express Journal, Greece

“Opening night”
“Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini is a showpiece for piano and orchestra both, requiring not only immense talent, but also a certain level of fearlessness. Maria Asteriadou most certainly displayed both, and her interpretation of the work was first-class. The virtuoso passages were breathtakingly played, while the more lyrical passages came with great sensitivity. Asteriadou very effectively took in all the varying emotions of the Rhapsody and conveyed them to the audience.”
Daily Telegram, Adrian, Michigan

"Asteriadou's and Nikkanen's performance of the work (Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin and Piano in D Minor) was breathtaking both for its virtuosity and for the amazing level of communication they had with each other... And the brilliance of the results earned the pair one of the most wildly enthusiastic receptions to ever come from an ASO audience."
Daily Telegram, Adrian, Michigan

Recording Reviews (samples)

“Demertzis and Asteriadou match the confidence of the music with performances of real beauty, conviction and flair.”
BBC Music Magazine, Martin Cotton

"Georgios Demertzis and Maria Asteriadou give all its rage, sadness and paranoia. A duo like Argerich and Kremer might have given us heightened psychic density and hits human drama. The Greek duo give us a version that is austere, incisive and mysterious: possibly the best introduction to music that strikes us a real revelation."
Repertoire Magazine, Andre Guy

“Intense personality and the muscle to back it up. Something else different about Ms. Asteriadou is that she seems to enjoy the music even more than playing the piano-something not always encountered in today’s young virtuosos.”
New York Times