Kostas Konstantinou

About Kostas Konstantinou

While performing on guitar with local groups in his hometown Athens, Greece, Kostas Konstantinou was preparing to travel to New York City to continue his musical journey. At the age of 17, NYC became his home base where he studied at Boys Harbor Conservatory of Music with a concentration in Afro-Cuban jazz styles. After completion, he continued in City College of New York where he graduated with a Jazz Guitar Performance degree. There he studied among others with John Patitucci (Chick Correa and Wayne Shorter bassist), Ray Gallon (T. Monk Jr. pianist), Ray Santos (saxophonist & arranger with Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez), Nelson Faria (world famous Brazilian guitarist of Joao Bosco), Rick Stone (one of the finest straight-ahead guitarist), Pete McCann (one of the first-call sidemen in New York,), Rich Perry (Maria Schneider Orchestra), Mike Holober (Gotham Jazz Orchestra), Dan Carillo (Tania Maria, Harry Belafonte, Jon Lucien), Scott Reeves (Juilliard School of Music, Dave Liebman Big Band, Kenny Werner) and many other world-known musicians based in the New York jazz scene. He has performed in NYC in many different venues with brazilian, jazz, funk, pop, rock, greek folk, and middle eastern groups. He has been traveling the world sharing his passion and talent as much as possible with audiences throughout the globe. He returned to Athens where he performs with locals groups, and musicians including George Kontrafouris, Konstantinos Zouganelis, Markos Papasifakis, and others. He also appears on Minos Matsas CD: Aristofani, Ornithes. He performed at Megaron The Athens Concert Hall Alexandra Trianti Hall with a jazz trio. He then joined the Zoe Tiganouria Quintet and he also appeared as a sideman with Kaiti Garbi, Stelios Dionisiou and Kostas Makedonas. Some of his appearances include the Megaron Athens Concert Hall (July 26, 2013), Half Note Athens Jazz Club, Badminton Theatre, Veakio Theatre, Jazz Point, Passport. In 2015 he also started playing with the guitarist George Spanos and amongst other performances they played together with Mimis Plessas. He taught modern guitar at the National Conservatory of Greece.
Since 2017 he relocated to London where he taught digital music courses and appeared mainly in musical theatre productions.