General director Constantinos Yiannoudes has performed leading operatic roles throughout the United States and in Europe. Baritone Yiannoudes has won critical acclaim for his dramatic and insightful portrayals of some of opera’s most beloved characters and most hated villains, including the title roles of Rigoletto, Macbeth, Don Giovanni, Barber of Seville and Gianni Schicchi, as well as the villains Iago and Scarpia. He is proud to have performed in thirty-one states in the United States, including as a featured soloist at New York’s Carnegie Hall/Stern Auditorium (Fauré’s Requiem, Wilberg’s Requiem, John Rutter’s Mass of the Children and Rossini’s Ermione).
An active conductor, he conducted numerous concerts with Kyrenia Opera in New York, Vienna and Cyprus. He also conducted the Boys Choir of Harlem on Broadway in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and prepared the Choir for performances with leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and other venues across the country. Under his visionary leadership from its founding in 1996 to 2014, the Pancyprian Choir became a valued member of New York City’s artistic community through more than eighty concerts, representing the wealth of Greek music and culture. Furthermore, with a lifetime of dedication to Byzantine music, he continues his leadership of the Choir of the Church of the Ascension in Fairview, New Jersey.
A committed educator, he has taught at Hunter College and City College of the City University of New York. Currently he is the Music Director of Opera at the Diller-Quaile School of Music. Dr. Yiannoudes holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a Master’s Degree from the Mannes College of Music. His major teachers included Armen Boyajian and William Stone in voice, Rudolph Palmer and Clayton Westerman in conducting and the late Herbert Stessin in piano at The Juilliard School.