Karolos Zouganelis was born in Athens in 1977. He began his studies in music when he was 5 years old and in 1992 he obtained his diploma from the National Conservatory in Athens. In 1996 he was accepted by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris where he worked with Gérard Frémy, Sylvaine Billier, Anne Grapotte, Jean Koerner and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and obtained the following titles : Diplômes de Formation Supérieure en Piano, Accompagnement Vocal, Accompagnement Instrumental et Musique de Chambre. He also focused his scope of work on the Lied (European romantic song) and melody, collaborating with Ruben Lifschitz and Jeff Cohen.
At a very young age, he stood out during the Panhellenic Papaioannou competition t in Athens, where he was awarded the first prize in 1991, while he also received several awards at other contests, such as the «Concorso Internazionale Città di Senigallia», in Italy, le «Concorso Internazionale Città di Marsala», the international «Anton Rubinstein» competition , the «Alfredo Casella» international contest in Italy, «Flame Concours” in Paris and several others. Karolos Zouganelis has given concerts as a soloist and duets with singers from Athens, Thessaloniki, Rome, Paris, the Opera Houses of Lyon and Montpellier, at the Amphithéâtre de la Cité de la Musique, Studio 106 de Radio France, Théâtre Mogador, Salle Cortot and Hôtel des Invalides.
He has participated in many international music festivals, including «Piano en Saintonge», «Les Musicales», «Ars Terra», «Dedans-Dehors» «Festival Européen Jeunes Talents», «Journées Lyriques de la Seine», la «Saison Musicale Royaumont», la «Villa Musica Konzertsaison». He has played under the direction of Jeffrey Milarsky , Zsolt Nagy, Janos Furst and Michael Gielen, and has performed les Variations Goldberg de J. S. Bach at the «Manolis Kalomiris» Festival in Samos, Corfu International Festival, as well as the Athens Muisic Hall.
On October 2006 and June 2007 he played the piano accompanying participants at the Operalia Song Competition, which was organized by Placido Domingo, the Opera House of Valencia and Theater Châtelet in Paris. On October 2007 he won the piano prize at the fourth international piano and duet contest “Nadia et Lili Boulanger”, as well as the duet prize together with soprano Shigeko Hata.
On February 2010, he took part in Chopin’s Complete Piano Works, which was organized by the Chopin Society and Pleyel Pianos in Paris and filmed by TV channel FRANCE 3. On March 1, 2012, he celebrated the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth by participating in a study of the composer’s piano compositions at Geneva’s Victoria Hall.
He is a professor of song teaching at the Peggy BOUVERET, in Paris, as well as associate professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris.
