Ioannis Petrakis

Ioannis Petrakis, originally from Crete, has started his first violin lessons in Germany at the age of six. In 1997, when he was 13 years old, he won the first prize in the pan-Hellenic music competition of the Ministry of Education of Greece. After being a student of Goni Dalipi, Dimitris Seiras, Manolis Souvatzis and Yannis Lampos, by the age of 18, he obtained a Violin diploma from the Municipal Conservatory of Rethymnon. He has graduated from the Music Academy of Cologne in the artistic and pedagogical field, studying in the class of Ariadni Daskalakis and Michael Vaiman. Further, he has continued a postgraduate studies in the field of orchestral performance at the University of Dortmund.

Ιn 2013, he founded the "Evenos String Quartet" which in 2015 won the first prize in the international competition "Paper de Musica" in Barcelona. 

Evenos quartet went on a tour through Europe and made an appearances on German Radio and on various international music festivals in a collaboration with distinguished musicians of the classical and world music scene such as Claudio Bochorquez, Ewa Kupiec, Sokratis Sinopoulos, etc. Along with that, In 2015, he completed postgraduate studies in Chamber Music with the Evenos quartet and continued with the highest musical studies, so called "Konzertexamen" in the class of the distinguished violinist Andreas Reiner at the Essen University of Arts.

As a regular member, concertmaster and soloist, Ioannis is participating in various ensembles and orchestras such as the WDR Sinfonie Orchester, Dortmund Symphony Orchestra, Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, Orchester der KlangVerwaltung, Mahler Chamber Orchester, Les Essences ensemble et al., with which he is touring through Europe, America and Asia.

Ioannis Petrakis is remarkably active in the pedagogical field. He has organized and participated as a professor in a series of international seminars together with the Evenos quartet. He has also taken part in social music-pedagogical programs in Europe and Africa and was a string instructor of the Balkan Youth Orchestra. Since 2018, he is a violin teacher at the Conservatory of the Municipality of Heraklion and a string instructor of the youth symphony orchestra of Crete of the municipality of Heraklion.  

In January 2023, he was selected as a permanent member of the State Orchestra of Athens in the section of first violins.