For Over Twenty Years

Born in Athens in 1974, Aristides Strongylis studied guitar and music theory with Evangelos Boudounis and Panayiotis Adam in Athens, as well as composition with Siegfried Thiele and Dimitri Terzakis at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. He gained significant inspiration for his compositional work through masterclasses and encounters with figures such as Jonathan Harvey, Peter Eötvös, and Kaija Saariaho. 

His works are performed at renowned venues across Europe, including the Gasteig in Munich, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Megaron in Athens, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, as well as in France, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, and, most recently, the USA. He has created compositions for, among others, the ensemble amarcord, Tatjana Masurenko, Hatto Beyerle, the Apollon Musagete Quartet, the Leipzig Synagogue Choir, MDR Kultur, the Koblenz State Orchestra, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. 

Aristides Strongylis collaborates with renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Garry Walker, Kerem Hassan, Florian Ludwig, Lin Liao, and Ivo Hentschel. 

To mark its 275th anniversary, the Gewandhaus Leipzig commissioned an orchestral work from Aristides Strongylis; titled "Engel der Hoffnung" (angels of hope), it was premiered in March 2018 by the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons. In January 2020, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kerem Hasan, premiered Aristides Strongylis’s "Equality" at the Gewandhaus; this was a collaborative commission involving students from the Goethe-Gymnasium Bischofswerda as part of the "Beethoven Experiment 2020." 

In May 2021, the Koblenz State Orchestra, conducted by Garry Walker, premiered the commissioned work "2020" at the Rhein-Mosel-Halle in Koblenz; due to the pandemic, the performance took place without an audience but was recorded by the SWR. The public premiere with audience took place in May 2026 at the Sayner Hütte in Bendorf as part of the International Koblenz Guitar Days, conducted by Ivo Hentschel. 

The Gewandhaus Leipzig has commissioned Aristides Strongylis to compose a work for the Gewandhaus Orchestra’s Pasakas Wind Quintet for the 2026/27 season. He is also working on a commission for the Athens Festival of Sacred Music for Easter 2027, a festival organized by the Greek Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Greek National Opera. 

Aristides Strongylis’s music is highly narrative and engages in an intense dialogue with other art forms such as literature, theater, dance, and painting. Critics describe his work as energetic, immediate, and expressive. 

Aristides Strongylis has received multiple awards for his long-standing work with children and young people, serving as an educator in composition pedagogy for schools and leading innovative workshops and international projects such as "Kinder zum Olymp" and the "Junge Ohren-Preis". In this capacity, he collaborates closely with the Leipzig Opera and the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the IFF Institute Hannover, and the Forum Thomanum Leipzig, as well as institutions in England and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He currently also teaches at the Institute for Music Education at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre. 

Aristides Strongylis is a member of both the Greek and German composers' associations. His works are published by Edition Gravis.