About our Music Director
Marios Papadopoulos is the Founder and Music Director of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford.
Described by The Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as ‘having all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor. He has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, Renée Fleming, Evgeny Kissin and Martha Argerich. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim, and Wilhelm Kempff (Daily Telegraph, Classic FM Magazine Critics’ Choice).
Having begun his career as a concert pianist, Marios Papadopoulos founded the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998 and has continued at its helm as Music Director ever since. Under his direction the Orchestra has gone from strength to strength, performing regularly in Oxford and beyond, and forging a strong relationship with the University of Oxford.
Described by The Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as having ‘all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Marios Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor.
In 1998, Papadopoulos founded the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued at its helm as Music Director ever since. Under his direction the Orchestra has gained an international reputation as one of the UK’s finest orchestras. Other than a series of concerts at its home in Oxford and other parts of the UK, the Oxford Philharmonic have toured abroad under Papadopoulos’s baton in a number of European cities, the USA, the Middle East and Asia, including a tour of nine concerts in Japan in 2024.
Papadopoulos has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s great orchestras in prestigious venues, including at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Over the years, Papadopoulos has forged close relationships with a host of eminent musicians with whom he collaborates regularly. They include Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Víkingur Ólafsson.
As pianist and conductor, Papadopoulos has directed from the keyboard the complete cycle of all the Mozart and Beethoven Piano Concertos. As one of the leading exponents of Beethoven’s music, he has also conducted the complete cycle of the symphonies on several occasions. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim and Wilhelm Kempff (Daily Telegraph, Classic FM Magazine Critics’ Choice).
A prolific recording artist, Papadopoulos’s catalogue includes his critically acclaimed Beethoven sonatas, performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Hyperion), works by Mozart, Mussorgsky, César Franck and the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in new recordings of Mozart’s Symphonies Nos 40 and 41 and the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. As a pianist, he and Vengerov have recorded the complete Brahms violin sonatas and also performed these in a recital at Vienna’s Musikverein. In 2020, Papadopoulos released two new recordings on the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra record label: Piano Favourites, featuring well-known works by Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov and more.
In the summer of 2021, Papadopoulos published his first book – a memoir titled Beyond Dreams and Aspirations: My Journey to Oxford which charts his early career, the creation of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and his thoughts on musical interpretation.
Papadopoulos is dedicated to nurturing young talent and imparts knowledge to young artists through his vast experience, particularly during the annual Oxford Piano Festival which he founded in 1999. He served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2015, the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 2016 and most recently at the Classic Violin Olympus International Competition in Dubai.
Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music from City University and is Fellow by Special Election of Keble College, Oxford. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2010 and was awarded Oxford City’s Certificate of Honour in 2013. Papadopoulos was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2014 New Year’s Honours List for services to music in Oxford.
