Recently called “A giant of the American music scene” by Gramophone Magazine, George Tsontakis has been the recipient of two of the richest prizes awarded in all of classical music; the International Grawemeyer Award, in 2005, for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Ives Living, from the American Academy. He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and in Rome, with Franco Donatoni. Born in Astoria, NY into Cretan heritage, he has become a recognized figure in Greece. His music is increasingly performed abroad, with performances in Europe and Asia every season. Most of his music has been commercially recorded by Hyperion, Koch, INNOVA and NAXOS, including fifteen works for orchestra, over five hours of orchestral music, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition.

He served as Composer-in-Residence with the Aspen Music Festival for 40 years, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, with the Albany Symphony for six years and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for the 2009-10 season, among others. He is Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Bard College Conservatory.

His most recent commissions and premieres, since 2018, include chamber works London's Mobius Ensemble, for the Barlow Endowment and large-scale pieces for the Boston Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a Requiem for the Albany Symphony as well as a violin concerto for Gary Levinson and the Dallas Symphony. He is currently composing a full evening chamber opera-drama for the National Greek Opera based on Lord Byron. NAXOS' recent release of three of his concertos with the Albany Symphony was heralded as one of NPR's “Top Ten Classical Recordings of 2017” and of the compact disc with his “Sonnets” by the Boston Symphony, BBC Magazine declared that the work was “the sparklingly expressive jewel this crown.” He lives in New York’s Catskill Mountains.