BIO

Andreas Foivos (“Fevos”) Apostolou was born into an artistic family in Athens, Greece. His aunt, concert pianist Vinia Tsopelas, has been a mentor and a driving force throughout his life. He was brought up by his mother, actress Rasmi Tsopela, who was practicing daily roles from plays by Chekhov, Ibsen, Beckett, Shakespeare, and ancient Greek dramatists. Until this day, theater and storytelling are a vital source of inspiration in his music.             

He has performed as a piano soloist in Greece, Italy, France, Russia, Austria, The Czech Republic, Israel and the US (New York, Philadelphia, LA). After winning the First Prize in the international competition IBLA Grand Prize (2018, Italy), he toured Asia performing his works for piano in the following countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Japan. In October 2021, he performed at Colburn (recital link), as an Emerging Artist in the Piano Spheres concert series, where he presented 2 World Premières by Nick Gianopoulos and Leo Ornstein.

As the pianist of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, he premiered works of distinguished living composers: John Luther Adams, Steven Mackey, Anders Hillborg, and others. He has recorded works by Ryan Chase and Steve Rouse. As a NME soloist, he premiered the work “Three Pieces for Solo Piano” by Bernard Rands (Pulitzer Prize), under the guidance and the presence of the composer.

His compositions for piano, chamber and orchestra have been presented in the US, Portugal, Netherlands, Russia and Spain. His symphonic work Van- 1915 was published in May 2016 by Indiana University Press and was dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. His work Metamorphosis for Solo Piano won the First Prize for Best Contemporary Work (2017) in the Cum Laude Awards competition (Spain), and was released on the album “In Crescendo”, Naxos of America Records.

He has produced soundtracks for films in the US, UK and Greece.  He collaborated with Oscar-nominated director Daphne Matziarakis, scoring the soundtrack for her powerful documentary Container, telling the story of Syrian children refugees in Greece. The documentary short was published in the New York Times- Op Docs series in 2020. In 2021, he scored soundtracks for LA-based independent directors Ethan Sacchi, Brian Cesson, Randa Ali, and Camila de los Santos, as well as collaborating with choreographer and UCLA alumna Clara Augustine on a project about traditional Haitian music.

He has been teaching music theory and production at UCLA as an Associate Instructor since 2019. He held the position of Associate Instructor at Indiana University, where he taught piano and created his own syllabus. He has also worked as a piano accompanist for IU Ballet Theater Productions, including Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Pulcinella.

In his PhD dissertation (2021), Apostolou analyzed, and recorded works by Leo Ornstein. His most important contribution is the publication of a new Ornstein work, Sonata for Piano (1917), which he discovered while conducting his research at the Yale University- Ornstein Papers Archive. Online publication: "Leo Ornstein: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Genius Early Modernism, Hebraic Elements, and Stylistic Evolution in his Pianistic Idiom"

He is currently a PhD candidate in Composition for Visual Media at UCLA- Herb Alpert School of Music. He completed his studies at the University of Macedonia- Thessaloniki, Greece (PhD in Piano Performance), Indiana University (MM in Piano Performance and Composition), Temple University (BM in Piano Performance).

He studied with pianists André Watts, Robert Levin, Alain Lefèvre, Charles Abramovic, Boris Berman, Dmitri Bashkirov, Emanuel Krasovsky, and
with composers Ian Krouse, Richard Danielpour, Peter Golub, David Lefkowitz, Kay Rhie, Claude Baker, George Tsontakis, David Dzubay, Sven-David Sandström, and Aaron Travers.

During his studies in the US, he has been awarded numerous competition awards, scholarships, fellowships, and academic prizes, e.g., State Scholarship Foundation (IKY), Latsis Foundation, Leon & Aspasia Lemos Foundation, J. F. Costopoulos Foundation, Music Merit Scholarship- UCLA, Artistic Excellence Award- Indiana University, Temple University, Music Award.

Apostolou is currently experimenting with expanding his compositional language, through the exploration of sound design, electronic music and interdisciplinary collaboration.