Zoe Zeniodi, hailed by the press as “Mrs. Dynamite” and the “Ingenious Greek Maestro” has an international career which has led her to conduct productions in Carnegie Hall, New Zealand Opera, Opera Southwest, Florida Grand Opera, Greek National Opera, Onassis Cultural Center, Festival of the Aegean, among others. She has guest conducted Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Wellington Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Bogota Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic, South Czech Philharmonic, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Tokyo Star Symphony Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Orchestra Classica Toscana, New Florida Philharmonic, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Pan-European Philharmonic, Youth Orchestra of Colombia and all the Greek Symphony Orchestras, among many others.
Zoe is a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentee. She has been a Fellow of the Hart Institute of Women Conductors (Dallas Opera) since 2016 where she has taken part in concerts and workshops with The Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera and Julliard School of Music. Recently, she was a finalist in the prestigious La Maestra Competition in Paris where she was chosen by the jury as one of the six women worldwide to be members of La Maestra Academy with engagements and professional support for 2022-2024.
Upcoming engagements include a Music Director Finalist Residency for Olympia Symphony Orchestra, USA, Cover Conductor for the world premiere of M Butterfly for Santa Fe Opera, a double bill of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and D’Sotto’s The Call for Opera Queensland, Australia, as well as concerts with National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and Medellin Orchestra, Academia Jovem Concertante in Brazil and Bremen Philharmonic. Recent highlights include a highly successful run of Le Nozze di Figaro for New Zealand Opera, concerts with Stephen Hough and Lise de la Salle as well as being the first woman to ever conduct at Opera Southwest (I Pagliacci) with a return for RX Rodriguez’s Frida and a Carnegie Hall Debut with the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
Previous artistic leadership positions include Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Principal Conductor of the Greek-Turkish Youth Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor for “Asia-Europe” New Music Festival Hanoi/Vietnam, Chief Conductor of MOYSA, Assistant/Cover Conductor for Florida Grand Opera, Music and Artistic Director of Broward Symphony Orchestra and Alhambra Orchestra, Associate Music Director of the Festival of the Aegean, Artistic Advisor of the Festival of the Aegean, Artistic Director of “Consonances” annual music series for the Onassis Foundation Scholars’ Association and Associate Conductor of the Frost Symphony Orchestra.
She has recorded for the Greek National Radio, both as a conductor and as a pianist. She has released seven recordings of American contemporary music, including most of Thomas Sleeper’s world premieres and Frank Ticheli’s master song-cycle “An American Dream” (Albany Records, Uroboros Music and Puzzlemusik). Additionally, she has taken part in prestigious masterclasses where she has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra and the Stockholm Sinfonietta.
Zoe frequently gives inspiring talks and commentaries on music and public domain issues, invited by institutions like the TEDx and other media outlets, and serves as a mentor for the Womentors Organization in Greece.
As a pianist, Zoe has appeared in major concert halls and festivals in England (Royal Festival Hall, St John’s Smith Square, St James’s Piccadilly), France (Montpellier Festival, Guibwiller Festival), Germany (Frankfurt Oper, Rheinsberg Festival, Halle, Kiel, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Berlin, Cologne, among others), Croatia (Lisinski Concert Hall), Russia (Kazan Tchaikovsky Hall), Austria (Wienersaal Salzburg), Belgium (European Union Hall), Holland (Embassy Concerts), Greece (National Opera, Athens and Thessaloniki concerts halls, Samos, Casa dei Mezzo, Koroni, Chios, Kefalonia, Chania Festivals), Italy, Venezuela, Mauritius, and the USA.
Zoe holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and an Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Miami. She studied piano and collaborative piano at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, earning her Master and Bachelor degrees, as well as Postgraduate and Advanced Postgraduate Diplomas. During her studies, she received scholarships and grants from the Alexandros Onassis Foundation, the Friends of Music Society, the Propondis Foundation, the Royal College of Music, and the University of Miami.
Zoe loves candles, flowers, books, various types of green tea and pure cacao, sunrises and sunsets. She enjoys being near the sea, walking in nature, reading poetry and literature, writing, exercising and learning languages. She loves sitting still in darkness and absolute silence for very long times. Finally, and most importantly, Zoe loves being a mother to her twins, a girl and a boy, aged 6, and, in her life, this is the greatest of blessings.
“Zoe Zeniodi showed impressive podium authority and control… Drew maximum tension from the opening sequences, bringing the quiet dreamlike section to a great climax... Ensemble playing was knife-edge precise…. She conducted a fleet, dramatically intense performance.”
- South Florida Classical Review
“Watching Zeniodi’s interaction with her fellow artists up close, one sees she is more musical muse than musician. Through her musical midwifery on the Schubert’s alternating moments of passion and brooding contemplation, the listener’s soul was bathed both in Socratic wisdom and Germanic Sturm und Drang. Further into the musical journey the Maestro deftly used the pauses in the score to heighten the drama, but it was her physical presence and total being that sculpted Schubert’s masterpiece, with its artful blending and then differentiation of feeling. The evolution of emotion through changes of musical mood and dynamics was guided by Zeniodi’s swaying and her hand movements; they simultaneously ‘spoke’ to the cello that needed to play a bit louder and the violin whose voice was just a breath…”
- The National Herald