Panayiotis Demopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1977 and grew up in the town of Kozani. He was raised in an enthusiastic, musical family: his four elder siblings are all musicians and his uncle was a pre-eminent Byzantine music scholar. He took his first music lessons at the age of 5 and gave his first public performance at the historical Parnassus Hall, Athens, in 1984.

Panos learned music privately for the next few years and developed an interest in most pupular styles of music, performing on many instruments with various local groups ranging in style from folk to jazz fusion idioms. Meanwhile he took part in and worked for the International Summer Music Courses of Kozani from 1989 to 1998 where he was taught the piano by Anna Prabucka-Firlej.

In 1996 he decided to study music formally and moved to Edinburgh where he joined the piano class of Margaret Murray-McLeod. In the next five years, he completed a BMus with honours at the Ian Tomlin School of Music, Napier University, whilst also studying mathematics and obtaining a philosophy title from the University of Edinburgh. This was followed by the opportunity to study the piano with Murray McLachlan and composition with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music on a scholarship.

In 2003 Panos was awarded the prestigious Greek State Scholarship (I.K.Y.) and a bursary from the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church, which enabled him to continue with research in composition at Cambridge and York. In 2007 he obtained his PhD in music composition from York University, where he worked under the supervision of Dr. William Brooks.

In 2007 Mr. Demopoulos moved back to Greece with his wife, the organist Nicola Harrington. After serving one year in the military, much of which he spent beating a drum, he entered full-time employment in education, teaching at the Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki and leading free improvisation and composition classes at the Openart music school in Larisa. He is the founder of Anaeresis (anon.) publishing and the Ricercati vocal ensemble.

Panos has attended numerous masterclasses and specialist courses and has taken lessons from amongst others Ruth Gerald, Marek Stachowski, Harrison Birtwistle, James MacMillan, Robin Holloway, Jonathan Harvey, Bernard Roberts, Galina Pisarenko, Anton Kuerti, Peter Feuchtwanger and George Lewis.

His music has been commissioned/performed by and presented at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians, the Krakow New Music Festival, Hochenlimburg Kammermusiktage, the Gaudeamus New Music Days, Composer’s Voice in New York, the Britten Sinfonia, Sarah Nicolls, the Elysian Quartet, the Birtwistle Resonances Festival, Pennine Spring Music, the York Late Music Festival, Kamerfilarmonie, CUMIS, the Cambridge Gamelan, Emma Jussila, Harry Spaarnay, Angelica Cathariou, Mike Solomon-Williams, the Northern School of Dance, John Harrington, ensemble Idee Fixe, TSO Underground, the Orchestra of Colours, Kettle’s Yard, York Minster, the Engadin Piano Festival and elsewhere.

As a pianist he has given premieres and second performances of more than 40 works and the list of pieces written for him is growing. His performances have been broadcast on radio and recorded professionally by Dunelm Records, Divine Arts and ASC on four CDs to critical acclaim. Interested in all kinds of music, Panos has sung for college choirs, played for a gamelan ensemble, big bands and other small ensembles and has been a member of the Kozani-based experimental music group Benjerle for over 10 years.

His research and seminars have included work on Alois Hába, Brahms, Webern, Gubaidulina, MacMillan, spectral music, music and language and microtonal music. Panos has published critical and literary texts in both English and Greek and has recently edited a volume for the Contemporary Music Review entitled Impossible Music (Routledge). He is now working on a book on the subject of new music and provincialism.

Other interests include basketball, film and literature. A firm belief in social equality and human fellowship renders him incapable of subscribing to doctrines and practices which propagate antagonisms, greed, violence and hatred; since 2010 Panos is politically active. More importantly, Since 2011, he is the father of Susannah-Stella Demopoulou.