Board Member

Anis Barnat

Anis is a multi-cultural citizen of the world with experience and journeys in the private sector, public administration, private-public institutions. A social entrepreneur committed to a core life’s mission as co-founder of El Sistema Greece, Anis believes in community arts projects as a tool for social inclusion. Anis has worked at the French Embassy in the USA, Radio France, Sciences Po Paris, and at Askonas Holt representing orchestras and choirs from all over the world, developing in particular a close relationship with El Sistema in Venezuela.

Board Member

Elisa Sologni

Elisa is dedicated to the cause of Music as a Tool for Social Inclusion and convinced that a better world is possible. Social equity, education for disadvantaged youths and respect of human rights for everybody are the battles she wants to fight for. She founded El Sistema Greece with her friend Anis Barnat and she also works as a cultural consultant at Hilti Foundation.

Board Member

Dimitra Raftopoulou

Dimitra is a 30 years old “Greek citizen of the world”, based in Athens. Most recently she joined the Artistic Direction of the Greek National Opera and some years ago she started to run El Sistema Greece as general manager. She lives with her dog, Tosca, and tries to spend as much time as possible with her family and friends going to the countryside and enjoy nature. With a solid background in cultural administration, she is familiar with planning and implementation of a wide range of activities’ programs and productions. She has worked at Teatro alla Scala as production manager, and at Teatro Regio di Torino as responsible of international relations and tour manager, working closely with the administration and technical team of big opera houses.  In her previous and current positions, she has had to design and organize a certain number of events. From preparing, supervising and producing the El Sistema Progetto at Teatro alla Scala, outdoors at the Parco Sempione and at the Expo Milano 2015 with more than 1,200 Venezuelan musicians, hosting Berlin Phil and Sir Simon or BSO with Andris Nelsons, to being part of the Special Olympics in Athens as a volunteer. From designing with the choreographer and dancer Aakash Odedra and his group a series of educational activities in the refugee camps in Athens’ region, to implementing Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project in Greece connecting mothers from vulnerable backgrounds (refugee camps, prisons, hospitals) with composers to co-create unique lullabies. She is passionate about art in general. Music is her “violon d’Ingres” but she is curious and she loves to go out to discover the world.

General Manager

Hara Chryssikopoulou Kessaris

Hara is a PR and communication professional with an innate passion for justice and the arts and an unbreakable positive attitude.

She has a law degree and a piano diploma but her teamwork personality traits have prevailed. She has worked both in leading PR companies and as a freelancer and has successfully designed and led her own innovative annual charity project “Taste the Fashion”. She is an active member of various non profitable organizations in aid of children in need, on behalf of which she has initiated and implemented numerous projects. She is a proud mother of two and in a constant pursuit of personal expression. She studies classical singing in the Athens Conservatoire, she sings in a choir but has also performed as a lead singer in a rock band, she keeps a personal blog with her life stories and opinions and has collaborated with a wide circulation magazine as a freelance columnist.

She believes in power through unity and making the world a better place with projects that bring talented people together under one great cause. Promoting social inclusion of underprivileged children in Greece and inspiring them to strive for a better future through the musical platform of El Sistema Greece is her newest life mission.

Artistic Director

José Angel Salazar Marin

José Angel is one of the products of the highly-acclaimed and worldwide recognized model of music education known as “El Sistema” in Venezuela. Being educated and trained in performance, organization and management, José Angel has served as the Main Conductor and Artistic Director of both the regional youth orchestra and the symphony orchestra of his hometown Margarita Island, and invited as a guest conductor for different productions of prominent venezuelan orchestras. He has also taken different conducting masterclasses and seminars both as passive or active participant, such as the Italian Opera Academy by Riccardo Muti in Ravenna, the Hans Swarowsky Akademie with Manfred Huss in Vienna, among others.

José Angel has been invited as a music teacher and conductor to assist in different Sistema inspired programs around the world, such as the Fundacion Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil del Ecuador (FOSJE) in Ecuador, the Saint Lucia School of Music, and the El Sistema Sweden Dream Orchestra, where he also worked with underprivileged youth at risk, children in extreme poverty status, refugees and migrants, using music education as a tool for social integration and human development. Jose Angel serves currently as the Artistic Director of ESG, where he is very happy to contribute reproducing the venezuelan model, adapting it to the Greek society and culture, helping children and youth from very varied backgrounds and social status.

Choir and Hospitality Manager

Angeliki Georgokosta

Angeliki spends most of her time in the pursuit of new choir members and dreams of making the most multicultural choir in Greece. When she wears the hat of the Hospitality Manager she welcomes about a hundred international visitors per year who come to join forces with ESG and enrich our program with extra curriculum special activities. Prior to joining the ESG team, Angeliki developed Off The Grid – an initiative funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation, aimed at the development of local, early stage musicians and bands. She has been an Αdministrator at Nozstock (UK) festival 2015 & 2016 and has worked at organizations such as Salzburg Global Seminar (AU) and Bios (GR).  She is an MA Creative Producing graduate from the Central School of Speech and Drama (UK) and she holds a Theatre Studies degree from the University of Patras. Since 2017, she has been a founding member of the cultural manager’s network in Greece, Culture for Change (C4C).

Instrument and Orchestra manager

Adriana Grigoriou

Αdriana was born in Athens to a Greek father and an English mother. She studied, lived and worked abroad for ten years before returning to Athens in 2017. She has previously worked in cultural organisations such as SNFCC, the Athens Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna and Documenta and has a long history of working with children. She joined ESG in 2018 assuming the role of instrument and orchestra manager. She plays the harp and sings and never misses a chance to Karaoke. She believes that music is indeed a powerful tool for change.

Communications Manager

Sevi Matsakidou

Sevi is the person behind the words of El Sistema Greece. She prefers to orchestrate all communication material behind the scenes. She studied theater, communications and semiotics and she has a long experience working with children, witnessing their transformation through arts. She has no music experience but firmly believes that everyone should be free to sing out loud, play an instrument and express themselves through music!

Pedagogical Counselor

Panayiotis Tsirides

Panayiotis was born in Limmasol of Cyprus in 1967 and he has lived in Athens since 1974. He studied music and consulting psychology and he works as a music pedagogue in primary schools. He collaborated with Athens University as a collaborator specialized in intercultural education. As a lecturer, he participated in several conferences and seminars for teachers and educators and he wrote many articles about art and education. Panayiotis plans educational programs for cultural fields and he is the leader of the team “Logou Paignion”. Since 2017 he has been the pedagogical coordinator of El Sistema Greece.  He wrote plays for children and adults. In addition, his books for children have been published by Patakis and Psichogios publishers.