Dr. Athanasios Ramadanidis
Dr. Athanasios Michail Ramadanidis is a Greek pianist and linguist. He received his early musical training at the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki, graduating with honors after studying piano with Anelia and Vangelis Portokalis, conducting with Karolos Trikolidis, and violin with Igor Selalmazidis. He continued his studies at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, where he earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy under the guidance of Uwe Matschke and Igor Petrin. In 2026, he completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Maryland as a student of Bradford Gowen; his doctoral research examined performance anxiety in piano students, focusing on its relationship to working memory and preparation strategies.
As a performer, Athanasios maintains an active international presence as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, with appearances in Greece, Austria, the Netherlands, France, and the United States. A significant milestone in his performing career came in 2022, when he made his concerto debut with Capella Istropolitana at Austria's Beethoven Plus Festival. His repertoire places particular emphasis on solo and ensemble works by contemporary and twentieth-century Greek composers. At the same time, his artistic profile is shaped by a sustained engagement with earlier performance traditions: he is deeply interested in historical keyboard instruments and historically informed performance practices, performing on harpsichord and fortepiano. Collaborative piano occupies a central place in his performing life: he has worked as a graduate assistant in collaborative piano at the University of Maryland and as a répétiteur for the Maryland Opera Studio during the 2024–2025 academic year and for the Festival Cévennes Lyriques in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, France, in the summer of 2026.
Alongside his performing activity, Athanasios has developed a strong commitment to music education. He has taught privately in Vienna and Thessaloniki, previously served as a teaching assistant for Functional Keyboard Skills at the University of Macedonia, and has taught class and applied piano at the University of Maryland. His association with Kutztown University began as collaborative pianist from 2022 to 2023 and continued at the Kutztown University Summer Music Festival, where he worked in 2024 and returned in 2026 as chamber ensemble coordinator, coach, and string orchestra conductor. In the fall of 2026, he joined the Department of Music at Kutztown University as an instructor, teaching aural skills and serving as a collaborative pianist. He has also been actively involved in mentoring young musicians at the summer camps of the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki, leading ensembles and orchestras and teaching ear training.
Athanasios has further refined his artistic development through studies with Maria Asteriadou and Domna Evnouchidou, as well as through participation in masterclasses with Marc-André Hamelin, Sara Davis Buechner, Robert McDonald, Natasha Paremski, Georg Steinschaden, George Hadjinikos, Zoe Samsarellou, and Michael Hauber.
In his guise as a linguist, Athanasios is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Crete, supported by a competitive grant from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. He is also an alumnus of the University of Vienna, where he completed BA and MA degrees in Romance Studies and General Linguistics, graduating with honors and receiving excellence scholarships.