As August draws to a close, some of Greece’s most rewarding musical evenings are taking place far from the country’s large commercial stages. Historic island buildings, neoclassical theatres and intimate outdoor venues are welcoming distinguished soloists, chamber orchestras and internationally active musicians.
Between 24 August and 5 September 2026, Patmos, Chios, Crete and Syros host carefully constructed programmes of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartók, Shostakovich and other major composers. The musicians include cellist Steven Isserlis, violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov, violinists Marc Bouchkov, Roman Simović and Josef Špaček, pianist Alexei Volodin, guitarist Thibaut Garcia and clarinettist Alessandro Carbonare.
Together, they form a late-summer programme of chamber-music festivals and individual concerts, shaped by major repertoire, internationally recognised performers and distinctive historic settings. The intimate scale of the venues allows audiences to experience the music at unusually close range.
The programme begins on Patmos on 24 August, when Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Boccherini’s String Quintet in D major and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes open seven consecutive evenings of chamber music. It continues with a violin-and-cello recital in the historic Kampos of Chios, a substantial series of concerts near Chania and five September performances inside the Apollon Theatre of Ermoupoli.
Before travelling: Concert programmes, reservation arrangements and ticket availability may change. Confirm the latest information with the festival or authorised ticketing platform.
Patmos
24–30 AUGUST
Patmos Chamber Music Festival
The week’s most distinguished gathering takes place on Patmos, where seven evening concerts bring internationally recognised soloists and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra to Chora and Skala.
The festival’s roster includes British cellist Steven Isserlis, violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov, Belgian violinist Marc Bouchkov, Italian clarinettist Alessandro Carbonare, French guitarist Thibaut Garcia, violinist Irène Duval, cellist Jing Zhao and pianists Alessandra Ammara, Roberto Prosseda and Viktoria Postnikova.
The performances are divided between Panagia Diasozousa in Chora, the Old School of Chora and the Primary School courtyard in Skala. The close relationship between music and place is particularly important here. The festival uses small historic and community venues rather than separating the performers from the audience inside a conventional concert hall.
24 August: Opening Night
The opening concert at Panagia Diasozousa brings together Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, known as the “Trout” Quintet, Boccherini’s String Quintet in D major and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes.
The performers are Marc Bouchkov, Alessandro Carbonare, Wies de Boevé, Irène Duval, Michael Guttman, Steven Isserlis, Maya Oganyan, Roberto Prosseda and Maxim Rysanov. The official festival page currently marks the opening concert as sold out, with a waiting list operating if reserved seats become available.
25 August: Bach’s Goldberg Variations
Guitarists Thibaut Garcia and Antoine Morinière perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations in Garcia’s transcription for two guitars. Recasting one of the keyboard repertoire’s most demanding works for two plucked instruments reveals its interlocking lines with unusual clarity.
The concert takes place at the Old School in Chora at 21:00. It is also currently listed as sold out, with places offered through a waiting list if cancellations occur.
26 August: From the East
The festival turns eastwards with music by Mikhail Glinka, Pēteris Vasks and Arno Babadjanian. Glinka’s Trio pathétique is followed by Vasks’s meditative Castillo Interior and Babadjanian’s passionate Piano Trio in F-sharp minor.
The performers are Marc Bouchkov, Matteo Fabi, Michael Guttman, Maya Oganyan and Jing Zhao. The concert begins at 21:00 at the Old School in Chora.
27 August: Pauline Viardot and Her Érard Piano
This programme is built around Pauline Viardot, the celebrated nineteenth-century singer, composer, pianist and influential figure in European musical life. Her own works appear beside music by Chopin, Messager and Fauré.
The performers are Alessandra Ammara, mezzo-soprano Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Irène Duval, Steven Isserlis, Maya Oganyan and Roberto Prosseda. The concert is presented in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane, the Venice-based centre devoted to French Romantic music.
It begins at 21:00 at the Old School in Chora.
28 August: Hommage to John Tavener
Steven Isserlis, Alessandra Ammara, Irène Duval and Maya Oganyan perform an evening dedicated to British composer John Tavener, whose spiritually focused music had a personal connection with Patmos.
The programme includes Palin, My Gaze Is Ever Upon You, Ypakoe and Thrinos. The island’s religious character gives this concert a resonance that would be difficult to reproduce in a conventional urban venue.
The performance begins at 21:00 at the Old School in Chora.
29 August: Brussels Chamber Orchestra I
The first of two orchestral evenings takes place in the Primary School courtyard in Skala. Michael Guttman conducts the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, with soloists Alessandra Ammara, Alessandro Carbonare, Simos Papanas, Roberto Prosseda and Jing Zhao.
The programme includes Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C major, Corelli and Geminiani’s La Folia, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Turina’s Serenata andaluza and Weber’s Clarinet Quintet in a version for clarinet and string orchestra.
The concert begins at 21:00.
30 August: Brussels Chamber Orchestra II
The final concert brings together Michael Guttman, cimbalom virtuoso Jenő Lisztes, cellist Jing Zhao and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra.
The programme moves from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne and Saint-Saëns’s La Muse et le Poète to Glazunov, Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov. It also includes John Williams’s theme from Schindler’s List and Dinicu’s brilliant Hora staccato.
The performance begins at 21:00 in the Primary School courtyard in Skala.
Island: Patmos, Dodecanese
Dates: 24–30 August 2026
Main evening time: 21:00
Venues: Panagia Diasozousa and the Old School in Chora; Primary School courtyard and Patmion Cultural Centre in Skala
Reservations: Advance reservation is required. The first two evening concerts are currently listed as sold out, but waiting-list places may become available.
View the complete programme and reserve places
More Than the Evening Concerts
The festival also includes public masterclasses, artist encounters and film screenings at the Patmion Cultural Centre. Among them are a film about Thibaut Garcia, an evening with pianist Viktoria Postnikova and director Bruno Monsaingeon, and a conversation with piano maker Paolo Fazioli.
On 30 August, Greek-Cypriot soprano Katerina Mina and Roberto Prosseda present a Greek song recital featuring works by Kalomiris, Theodorakis, Xarchakos, Tsitsanis and Hadjidakis. The recital begins at 18:00, before the final Brussels Chamber Orchestra concert.
Chios
26 AUGUST
Chios Music Festival: Roots & Revolutions, From Bach to Stravinsky
Two Greek musicians with substantial international careers meet at Karavas Estate in the historic Kampos of Chios for a programme tracing the development of European music from the Baroque period to the twentieth century.
Violinist Olga Holdorff Myriangou has performed across Europe, Asia, Canada and the Middle East. Her collaborations have included musicians and ensembles associated with the Berliner Philharmoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie and WDR. She is a member of the contemporary-music ensemble Lux:NM, founder of the Berlin Music Ensemble and co-founder of the Chios Music Festival.
Cellist Maria Anissegou studied in Thessaloniki, Würzburg and Leipzig and has appeared as a soloist at festivals in Greece and abroad. She is a member of the IAMA Trio and VersUs Ensemble, performs with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the New Conservatory of Music of Thessaloniki.
From Counterpoint to Modernism
The concert begins with three of Johann Sebastian Bach’s two-part Inventions, adapted for violin and cello. These compact works introduce the contrapuntal conversation that runs through the rest of the evening.
Haydn and Beethoven represent the clarity and balance of the Classical period, while Reinhold Glière’s Eight Pieces for Violin and Cello bring greater Romantic colour. Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances introduce the rhythmic and melodic influence of folk traditions.
Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, arranged for violin and cello by the celebrated cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, looks back towards eighteenth-century music through an unmistakably twentieth-century musical language.
The programme also includes A Summer’s Day in Chios in the 1980s by contemporary Greek composer Eleftherios Veniadis, giving the concert a direct connection to the island.
City/area: Kampos, Chios
Date: Wednesday 26 August 2026
Time: 21:00
Duration: Approximately 70 minutes, without an interval
Venue: Karavas Estate (Karaviko), Kampos
Address: 14 Aristidi Karava Street, Kampos, Chios
Tickets: Advance booking is available through the official ticketing platform
Buy tickets through TicketServices
View the complete programme on the Chios Music Festival website
Chania, Crete
14th Chania Chamber Music Festival: Dialogues Through Time
The Chania Chamber Music Festival brings some of Europe’s distinguished soloists and chamber musicians to western Crete for a programme spanning Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mozart, Bartók, Shostakovich and major works of the 20th century. Its 2026 theme, Dialogues Through Time, places familiar masterpieces beside music that challenged the conventions of its era.
Performers include violinists Josef Špaček, Roman Simović, Veriko Tchumburidze and Noe Inui; pianists Enrico Pace and Alexei Volodin; clarinettist Spyros Mourikis; violists Milena Simović and Marc Sabbah; and cellists Angelos Liakakis and Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin.
24 August: Beethoven and Enescu
The first Platanias concert pairs Beethoven’s String Trio in G major, Op. 9 No. 1 with George Enescu’s remarkable Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7. Written while Enescu was still a teenager, the octet has the scale and emotional sweep of a symphony, making it an ambitious opening to the festival’s main series.
26 August: Emotion and Lyricism Across Centuries
Pianist Enrico Pace opens the evening with Liszt’s meditative Vallée d’Obermann. He then joins violinist Josef Špaček and cellist Angelos Liakakis for Martinů’s Piano Trio No. 2. Mendelssohn’s radiant String Quintet No. 2 completes the programme.
The following evening, on 27 August, composer Markos Moisidis presents the lecture Continuity and Fractures in the DNA of Western Music. Admission to the lecture is free with an entry pass.
28 August: Poulenc and Schubert
Poulenc’s lively Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet brings pianist Alexei Volodin together with the Athens State Orchestra Wind Quintet. The mood changes for Schubert’s profound String Quintet in C major, D. 956, one of the central works of the chamber-music repertoire.
30 August: Bartók, Mustonen and Weber
Bartók’s sharply coloured Contrasts, written for clarinet, violin and piano, begins a programme devoted to unusual instrumental combinations. It is followed by Olli Mustonen’s Nonet No. 2 and Weber’s lyrical Clarinet Quintet in B-flat major, with Spyros Mourikis as the clarinet soloist.
31 August: Shostakovich, Medtner and Mozart
The final August concert opens with Shostakovich’s intense Piano Trio No. 2. Alexei Volodin continues with Medtner’s inward-looking Sonata-Reminiscenza, before the evening closes with Mozart’s elegant String Quintet in E-flat major, K. 614.
3 and 4 September: Two Evenings at Ancient Aptera
The festival concludes in the atmospheric Ancient Theatre of Aptera. Both evenings feature Skalkottas’s Sonata for Solo Violin, Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello and Brahms’s String Quintet No. 2. These concerts form part of the Festival of Crete and are presented with the Region of Crete and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania.
City/area: Platanias and Aptera, Chania, Crete
Dates: 24 August–4 September 2026
Main venue: Conference Centre, Minoa Palace Resort, Platanias
Final concerts: Ancient Theatre of Aptera
Starting time: 21:00
Tickets: Individual concert tickets and festival passes are available through the official booking platform
Aptera concerts: Free admission with advance entry pass, subject to availability
Ermoupoli, Syros
Syros International Music Festival at the Apollon Theatre
From 1 to 5 September 2026, the Syros International Music Festival presents five consecutive evenings of chamber music inside the historic Apollon Theatre in Ermoupoli. Artistic director and pianist Jonas Vitaud leads an international group of musicians in programmes ranging from Spanish classical music and Brahms to contemporary composition, shadow theatre and Greek traditional melodies.
The setting is integral to the experience. Opened in 1864 and designed by Italian architect Pietro Sampo, the Apollon Theatre is closely connected with the cultural history of Ermoupoli. Its intimate auditorium is especially well suited to the festival’s solo and chamber performances.
1 September: Viva España
The opening concert is devoted to the colours and rhythms of Spain. Music by Enrique Granados, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Padre Antonio Soler and Catalan cellist-composer Gaspar Cassadó brings together Baroque keyboard music, Spanish folk influences and early 20th-century modernism.
Cellist Yan Levionnois performs Cassadó’s technically demanding Suite for Solo Cello, while soprano Thaïs Raï-Westphal sings de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Pianists Natacha Kudritskaya and Jonas Vitaud complete the opening-night ensemble.
2 September: Brahms!
The second evening is entirely dedicated to Johannes Brahms. The programme includes the Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b, the graceful Sixteen Waltzes for Piano Four Hands, Op. 39, three Lieder and the Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38.
Performers include soprano Thaïs Raï-Westphal, cellist Yan Levionnois and pianists Jiyeon Lee, Natacha Kudritskaya and Jonas Vitaud.
3 September: Women Composers
Four composers from different periods take centre stage: Pauline Viardot, Germaine Tailleferre, Kaija Saariaho and the festival’s composer-in-residence, Sofia Avramidou.
Viardot’s songs and piano music meet the refined modernism of Tailleferre, the luminous musical language of Saariaho and Avramidou’s contemporary writing for voice and cello. Avramidou also appears as a performer, alongside Thaïs Raï-Westphal, Yan Levionnois, Natacha Kudritskaya and Jonas Vitaud.
4 September: François Couperin and Shadow Theatre
This interdisciplinary evening combines the keyboard music of French Baroque composer François Couperin with shadow theatre and video. Pianist Natacha Kudritskaya performs a selection of Couperin’s character pieces, including Les Barricades mystérieuses, Le Tic-Toc-Choc, Les Rozeaux and Les Ondes.
The visual dimension is created by shadow-theatre artist Leslie Laugero and video artist Benoît Lahoz, turning the recital into one of the festival’s most distinctive events.
5 September: 200 Years of Ermoupoli
The gala concert marks the bicentenary of Ermoupoli through music associated with three years: 1826, 1926 and 2026. The first recalls the early careers of Liszt and Chopin. The second introduces the jazz-inflected music of George Gershwin, while the final part looks towards contemporary creation and new arrangements of Greek traditional melodies.
The programme includes Gershwin’s Five Preludes, György Kurtág’s concentrated piano miniature Les Adieux, music by Sofia Avramidou and arrangements of Greek traditional songs for voice and two pianos. Avramidou appears as both composer and singer, joined by Thaïs Raï-Westphal and pianists Jiyeon Lee, Natacha Kudritskaya and Jonas Vitaud.
City/area: Ermoupoli, Syros
Dates: 1–5 September 2026
Venue: Apollon Theatre, Vardaka Square
Starting time: 20:30 each evening
Tickets: Single-concert tickets and festival passes are available, subject to seating availability
Telephone bookings: +30 210 723 4567
Apollon Theatre box office: +30 22810 85192
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