Kornilios Michailidis is a Greek conductor and pianist, renowned for his work in both the symphonic and operatic repertoire.
 

He is the First Prize and Orchestra Award winner of the prestigious Tokyo International Conducting Competition 2024, a success that has since led to regular engagements in Japan.
 

As a guest conductor, he has worked with world-class orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, South Denmark Philharmonic, as well as all major Greek orchestras. He has also collaborated with some of today’s most distinguished soloists, including Lise Davidsen, Sir Stephen Hough, Benjamin Grosvenor, and Denis Kozhukhin.
 

His recent recordings of symphonic works by Mikis Theodorakis with the Staatskapelle Weimar, released by Berlin Classics, and with the Athens State Orchestra, released by Genuin Classics, have received critical acclaim.

 

Since 2018, he has maintained an ongoing artistic relationship with the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he made his official debut with Die Zauberflöte in 2020 and conducted John Adams’ Nixon in China in 2023, as well as Eugene Onegin in 2025.

His operatic repertoire includes Falstaff, La clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo, Cherubini’s Médée, and Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains, among others.

 

Kornilios graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2018 with a Master’s degree in Conducting. Prior to that, he studied piano at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in the USA.

 

His early career included positions as Assistant Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the 2016/17 season and Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 2018 to 2020. In the 2021/22 season, he served as Conductor in Residence at the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

 

As a laureate of the 1st International Piano Competition in Mayenne, France, he has since performed in Europe, Israel, and the USA, giving piano recitals and chamber music concerts, and appearing as a soloist with orchestras. He has collaborated with esteemed musicians such as Sergei Krylov, Valeriy Sokolov, and Juraj Valčuha.

 

From 2016 to 2020, Kornilios Michailidis was co-founder and director of the “Beethoven Now!” project and chamber orchestra in Finland, a collective specializing in the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, presenting his work in a modern context through innovative and historically informed interpretations.

 

In 2016, he founded the Koufonisia Classical Music Festival, a rapidly developing and highly regarded cultural institution held on one of Greece’s smallest islands.

 

In addition to his musical career, he is an active aviator.