Kornilios Michailidis is a Greek conductor and pianist. 

Having recently completed his tenure as Conductor in Residence of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, he is currently establishing his activity in both the symphonic and operatic worlds.

 

During the 2016-2017 season he was the Assistant Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ever since, he was regularly invited to assist in major opera houses, such as the Opera of Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid.

 

​From 2018 - 2020 he was the Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France next to Mikko Franck.

 

In 2020, he gave his official debut at the Teatro Real, conducting Mozart’s “Magic Flute”. In 2023 he returned to the Teatro Real, conducting performances of John Adams' "Nixon in China".

 

As a guest conductor he also appears with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Sinfonia Lahti, the Athens State Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Raanana Symphonette, the South Denmark Philharmonic, among others. He has equally conducted opera productions of Verdi’s “Falstaff” and Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” in Helsinki, and assisted in the preparation of Kaija Saariaho’s opera “Only the Sound Remains”.

 

His recent activity as a conductor includes his participation at the Scrjabin Music Festival in January 2022, where he conducted the Russian National Orchestra at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in honour of the composer's 150th Anniversary, a gala concert with Lise Davidsen and the Athens State Orchestra, as well as a gala concert with Kristján Jóhannsson and the Icelandic Opera.

Among his recent highlight concerts are also a series of last-minute step-ins for well-known conductors, such as the most recent replacement of Eva Ollikainen with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in February 2023, in collaboration with Sir Stephen Hough.

 

Having studied piano at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University in the USA, he is since 2018 a graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with a Master’s degree in Conducting.

 

Laureate of the 1st International Piano Competition in Mayenne (France), he performed as a pianist in Europe, Israel and the USA, notably in a series of recitals with the last three Beethoven Piano Sonatas, a recital - tribute to A. Scrjabin, as a soloist in Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto with the Athens State Orchestra conducted by Juraj Valčuha, as well as in recitals with the acclaimed violinists Sergei Krylov and Valeriy Sokolov. 

 

From 2016 to 2020, Kornilios Michailidis was co-founder and leader of the Beethoven Now! Project and Chamber Orchestra in Finland, a collective specializing in the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, presenting his work in the context of the modern sunlight through innovative and historically informed interpretations.

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Since 2016, he is founder and director of Koufonisia Classical Music Festival, a rapidly developing cultural institution taking place in one of Greece’s smallest islands.

 

In addition to music, he is an active aviator.