Panagiotis Giannakas was born in Athens in 2000. From 2022 he has held the Principal Clarinet position of the Athens State Orchestra. In June 2026 he won the audition of Solo Clarinet at the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
He has been awarded in numerous international competitions, including the Carl Nielsen, Jacques Lancelot, Cluj and Carlino International Clarinet Competitions as well as several prestigious national contests.
Giannakas has collaborated with world-renowned conductors and soloists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Mäkelä, Lahav Shani, Antonio Pappano, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vasily Petrenko, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Pierre Bleuse, Elim Chan, and many others. He has appeared in celebrated concert halls across three continents, including Carnegie Hall, Victoria Hall, and Tonhalle Zurich, and has performed at international festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Pablo Casals Festival, Puplinge Classique, among others.
As a soloist, he has performed with various orchestras including the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the State Philharmonic of Transylvania, the Orchestre de Caen, the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie, the Athens State Orchestra, the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra, the Athens Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra, the Geneva Haute École de Musique Orchestra, and others.
He began his clarinet studies with his grandfather and later graduated from the Athens Conservatoire with Distinction and First Prize unanimously under Spyros Mourikis. From 2019 to 2024, he studied at the Haute École de Musique de Genève with Romain Guyot, obtaining both a Bachelor in Music – Clarinet and a Master in Specialized Musical Performance – Soloist.
