Xenia Konstantinidou was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in Athens. She is a composer of contemporary acoustic music, pianist, and musicologist whose work bridges composition, performance, and musicological research. She completed her doctoral studies at the Department of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the supervision of Professor Costas Tsougras, having previously graduated from the same department with a BMus and Integrated MMus degree in 2014. She studied Harmony with Ioannis Toufexis, Counterpoint with Ioannis Baroutas, and Fugue with Giorgos Sakallieros. In 2023, she was awarded a Diploma in Composition with First-Class Honours by unanimous decision, together with the First Prize in the composition class of Dimitris Oikonomou. As a pianist, she holds a Diploma in Piano from the class of Eleni Konstantinidou and has further developed her practice through studies in jazz piano with Grigoris Simadopoulos.

As a pianist, she has actively attended numerous piano masterclasses (Orsolya Szabó, Gerasimos Hoidas, Giorgos Hatzinikos, Milcho Leviev, etc.) and has given the world premieres of works by the composers Apostolos Darla and Vasilis Hatzimakris. She has given concerts with various chamber music ensembles at different venues in Thessaloniki, Athens and Drama (Vafopouleio Cultural Centre, Block 33, Danish Institut, Attica Conservatoire, the Musicians’ Horizons Conservatoire, the Nikopolis Conservatoire, the Drama Municipal Conservatoire, etc.).

Her compositional work has won awards in various competitions, such as the 8th Dimitris Dragatakis Composition Competition (2nd prize, 2018), the 1st Theodoros Antonios Composition Competition (2nd prize, 2020) and the Greek National Opera and the Union of Greek Composers’ Lyric Song Composition Competition on the theme “1821, The Greek Revolution and Poetry Set to Music” (2nd prize, 2021). Her piano miniature I Told You, Mum’ was selected by the Friends of Music Association to mark its 70th anniversary (2022). Following an invitation from the computational musicology group at the Department of Musicology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, led by Dr. Emilio Kampouropoulos, she composed a string quartet (2019) to evaluate the Chameleon computational system for melodic harmonisation, which was performed by the string quartet of the Barcelona National Orchestra (2021). Her works have been performed by the contemporary Greek music ensemble of the Greek Composers’ Union (Athens Concert Hall and Thessaloniki Concert Hall), as well as by students from the Department of Music Studies at the University of Ioannina (Dione Hall).

As a musicologist, she has attended and presented at various conferences organised by the Hellenic Musicological Society. Two of her papers have been published in the proceedings of the 12th and 14th Interdepartmental Musicology Conferences of the Hellenic Musicological Society. Furthermore, she was a member of the editorial team for the music programmes of the Thessaloniki Municipal Symphony Orchestra (2018).

She has taught as a piano teacher and as an accompanist to opera singers at various conservatoires in Thessaloniki (2014–2020). For three years, she was the conductor of the “Panagia Kremasti” Pontic children’s choir of the Municipality of Evosmos-Kordelio (2017–2020). From 2020 to 2025, she worked as a music teacher in primary education (Arcadia, Thessaloniki and Pieria). 

Biography

Education

Ph.D.  Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

School of Fine Arts, Department of Music Studies

Doctor of Philosophy in Systematic Musicology (2017-2025)

(Class of Costas Tsougras)

BMus & MMus Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

School of Fine Arts, Department of Music Studies

Bachelor of Musicoly and Master of Musicology (2006-2014)

(Postgraduate thesis, class of Costas Tsougras)

Diploma Music College Conservatory of Thessaloniki

Department of Composition

Diploma of Proficiency in Composition (2017-2023)

(class of Dimitris Economou)

Degree Music College Conservatory of Thessaloniki

Department of Music Theory

Degree in Fugue (2013-2015)

(class of Giorgos Sakallieros)

Degree Music College Conservatory of Thessaloniki

Department of Music Theory

Degree in Counterpoint (2009-2011)

(class of Ioannis Baroutas )

Diploma Music School  “Eleni P. Konstantinidou“ of Aspropyrgos, Athens

Department of Piano

Diploma of Proficiency in Piano (2006)

(class of Eleni Konstantinidou)

Degree Music School “Eleni P. Konstantinidou“ of Aspropyrgos, Athens

Department of Music Theory

Degree in Harmony (2003-2005)

(class of Ioannis Toufexis)

Musicological Publications

2025

“An Analytical Approach to Georgios Poniridis’ Eumolpies Nos. 1–4 (1965–1969)“. In the Proceedings of the 16th Interdepartmental Musicological Conference ‘Anniversary Musical Reflections, Analytical Approaches, and Critical Reflections’. Ioannis Foulias, Emmanouil Giannopoulos and Dimitris Exarchos (eds.), 81–102. Thessaloniki: Hellenic Musicological Society, 2025.

2024

“The piano compositions of Georgios Poniridis (1887–1982) from the Two Preludes (1916) to the cycle Attic Suites (1937)”. In the Proceedings of the 14th Interdepartmental Musicological Conference ‘Histories, traditions, transformations’. Ioannis Foulias, Stamatia Gerothanasi, Theodora Iordanidou, Evanthia Patsiaoura, Chrysa Scarlatou, Evangelia Spyrakou (eds.), 184–204. Thessaloniki: Hellenic Musicological Society, 2024.

Conferences

2024: 16th Interdepartmental Conference of Hellenic Mousicological Society, Thessaloniki

  • Topic: “An analytical approach to Georgios Poniridis’ Eumolpies Nos. 1–4 (1965–1969)”.

2022: 14th Interdepartmental Conference of Hellenic Mousicological Society, Arta

  • Topic: “The piano compositions of Georgios Poniridis (1887–1982) from the Two Preludes (1916) to the cycle Attic Suites (1937)”.

2020: 12th Interdepartmental Conference of Hellenic Mousicological Society, held online due to Covid

  • Topic: “The second from the cycle Eurythmies (No. 2, 1956) by Georgios Poniridis (1882–1982): An analytical approach”.

2019: 11th Interdepartmental Conference of Hellenic Mousicological Society, Athens

  • Topic: “A periodic – and non-periodic – cataloging of the works of Georgios Poniridis and the critical edition of the Attic Suite No. 3 (1937) for piano”.

2014: 16th Kozani International Music Seminar co-organized with the Archaeological Museum of Aiani, Kozani

  • Topic: “Bill Evans’ jazz harmony and his improvisational technique” (Master's thesis).

Dissertation

The compositional style of Georgios Poniridis through the analysis of his music for solo piano and critically edited digitisation of selected piano works.

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki · Department of Music Studies
Supervised by Prof. Costas Tsougras

Members of the Advisory Committee: Giorgos Sakallieros, Konstantinos Chardas

Research field: Systematic Musicology

Compositional Awards

(2026) Awarded Third Prize in the Anamochleusis Composition Competition, organized by the Greek association Friends of Music (Syllogos oi Filoi tis Mousikis), for Thessaloniki Dance for string quartet.

(2023) First Prize in Composition, awarded by unanimous decision, Composition Class of Dimitris Economou (examination board: Christos Samaras, Constantinos Siembis, Costas Tsougras).

(2022) The piano miniature I told you, my mother (Sou eipa mana m’ ) was selected by the Greek association Friends of Music (Syllogos oi Filoi tis Mousikis) to mark its 70th anniversary.

(2021) Awarded Second prize at the 1st Art Song Composition Competition for the work The people do not die (O laos den pethainei, for mezzo-soprano and piano, based on a poem by Kostas Varnalis) on the theme “1821, the Greek Revolution and poetry set to music”, organised by the Greek National Opera and the Association of Greek Composers.

(2020) Awarded Second prize at the 1st Theodor Antoniou Composition Competition for the work Between Clouds and the Sea, for a small ensemble of nine instruments. The event was organised under the patronage of the Greek Composers’ Association.

(2018) Awarded Second prize at the 8th Dimitris Dragatakis Composition Competition for the composition Assimilations II for string quartet. The event was organised under the patronage of the Greek Composers’ Association.