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Dinos Constantinides' works have been performed throughout the US, Europe and Asia by prestigious ensembles including the American Symphony Orchestra in New York; the Memphis and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras; the English Chamber Orchestra; the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in the Czech Republic; the Athens State Orchestra in Greece and the Shenzhen Symphony in China.
He received the first prize in the 1981 Brooklyn College International Chamber Opera Competition, the 1985 First Midwest Chamber Opera Conference, and the 1997 Delius Composition Contest. In 1985 he was honored with the American New Music Consortium Distinguished Service Award and in 1989 with the Glen Award of L'Ensemble of New York. He has received several Meet the Composer grants as well as yearly ASCAP Standard Awards. In 1994, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars honored him with a Distinguished Teacher Award.
Writing for the New York Times, Tim Page described Constantinides as a composer whose "music speaks simply, often combining Greek modes... with an attractive quality of ritual mystery." The Romanian newspaper Cuget Liber acclaimed; "The music of the Greek-American composer Dinos Constantinides seduced the listeners with its unusual warmth and sincerity." And the late Ernst Krenek described one of his works as follows: "There are many fascinating details...I am much impressed."
As the Director of the prestigious Louisiana State University Festival of Contemporary Music for 22 years, Constantinides presented the top composers of the continent including Carlos Chávez, John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Karel Husa, and Ernst Krenek among others.
He has written over 250 compositions, most of them published, for all mediums including his opera Intimations winner of two Awards, his opera Antigone and six symphonies of which the 2nd Symphony earned him the Artist of the Year Award of Louisiana.
Constantinides has served on the Board of Directors of many national societies in the U.S.A., including the Society of Composers (SCI), College Music Society, National Composers of U.S.A. and Music Teacher National Association (MTNA). He is a member of ASCAP and has been an evaluator for the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He was educated in Greece at the Ioannina, Greek, and Athens Conservatories and in the USA at the universities of Indiana, Michigan State and the Juilliard School. His teachers included Tony Schultze, Marios Varvoglis, Yannis Papaioannou, Leda Kouroukli, Olga Menjou, George Lykoudis, Ivan Galamian, Dorothy DeLay and Josef Gingold. Constantinides was a member of the violin section of the State Orchestra of Athens in Greece for over 10 years, and played in the Indianapolis Symphony and Baton Rouge Symphony (Concertmaster) in the USA for many years.
He is presently Boyd Professor, the highest academic rank at Louisiana State University, head of the Composition area, and Music Director of the Louisiana Sinfonietta.
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