Giorgos Kanaris was born in Greece. He took his first musical steps in the boys’ choir of his hometown and in the Kanaris family ensemble, which was directed by his father Dimitrios Kanaris. He studied singing with such teachers as Josef Metternich in Munich and attended courses given by Helmuth Rilling and Thomas Quasthoff in Stuttgart and master classes given by Daphne Evangelatos at the Munich College of Music.

He won the special award in the oratorio/song category of the Maria Callas Grand Prix in 2005 and he has been engaged in various concerts conducted by Helmuth Rilling.

He has performed in Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Philarmonie im Gasteig in Munich and Cairo Opera House. Further invitations have notably taken him to Athens, the Prince Regent Theatre of Munich, the Margravial Opera House of Bayreuth and the Ruhr Triennial arts festival as well as in Essen, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Nürnberg, Kaiserslautern, Bremen, Coburg, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee and Montepulciano.

Giorgos Kanaris has been a regular member of the Bonn Opera since 2009. He made his debut there as Massimo in Handel’s Ezio. He has also performed Renato in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Marcello in Puccini’s La boheme, Enrico in Donizzeti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the Count in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Peter in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

Giorgos Kanaris was among the prize-winners at the Schloss Laubach Contest in 2009. In 2010 he won the prize of the ‘Friends of Bonn Opera’, which is awarded every two years. He received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Society in 2011.

Giorgos Kanaris is a recitalist as well as an opera singer. Together with the conductor and pianist Thomas Wise he has given numerous recitals with works including Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, Schubert’s Schwanengesang, Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, Ravel’s Don Quichotte and songs by Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner.

In April of 2017 his first CD “Songs of Yearning – Sehnsuchtslieder” was released by “Hänssler CLASSIC” label, in which he interprets Beethoven’s AN DIE FERNE GELIEBTE and Schubert’s SCHWANENGESANG. In January of 2020 a second CD was released with the title “Invitation au Voyage”, in which Kanaris sings Duparc, Ravel, Ibert und Debussy.

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