Scholar of the Onassis Foundation | PhD in semiotics (Sorbonne-Paris IV University) | Law graduate (ΕΚΠΑ) | Faculty in FRSFPA (Deree-The American College of Greece).
A versatile and prominent soprano, Maira Milolidaki studied at the Athens Conservatoire (Diploma in classical singing). As a scholar of the Onassis Foundation, she pursued her vocal studies in Milan, Italy, with Maria Luisa Cioni and in Rome with Renata Scotto, as a member of the Opera Studio in the National Academy of Santa Cecilia. She has also studied theatre and the art of performance (Drama school Εmpros-Ergastiri and Attis Theater, the Acting Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos).
As a debutante, she has participated in the international young artists program of the Aegean Opera under the artistic direction of the American baritone Sherrill Milnes. Since then, she appears regularly on stage performing a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary music. She is a member of the Baroque Ensemble Canto Soave (their CD Vita Segreta, Musica Segreta has been recently released by FM Records).
As a recording artist, she collaborates with the avant-garde electronic sound designer Constantine Skourlis, creating experimental music for internationally acclaimed theatre and dance performances, such as Don Quixote (by Res Ratio Network) and Richard II-Requiem for a King (directed by Marlene Kaminsky). Their latest collaboration includes the performance on the life of Hildegard von Bingen, Splendidissima Gemma-Recomposing Hildegard (Megaron-The Athens Concert Hall, March 2020), the recording of the songs for the dance performance Free at Last (Theater Rotterdam, June 2019, Festival of Athens and Epidaurus, June 2021) and the album Eternal Recurrence, released by Bedouin Records.
Her appearances in concerts and opera productions include the National Theater of Greece, the Greek National Opera, the Alternative Stage of the GNO, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Teatro dal Verme (Milan), Carnegie Hall (New York), the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the Baroque Festival of Siena, etc. She has performed roles, such as Violetta (Verdi, La Traviata), Magda (Puccini, La Rondine), Gilda (Verdi, Rigoletto), Queen of the Night (Mozart, The Magic Flute), Micaela (Bizet, Carmen), Rosina (Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia), Céphise (Rameau, Pygmalion), Godmother (Viardot, Cendrillon) and Morgana (Handel, Alcina).
She has collaborated in various concerts with the Academica Orchestra of Athens, the Athens State Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Cyprus, the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Orchestra Sinfonica Tito Schipa, the Greek Composers’ Union, the string quartet L’Anima, the brass quintet Melos Brass, the organist J. Geffert, and the countertenor Michael Chance.
She was the artistic director of the concert cycle “A Museum Made of Music” (Museum of Cycladic Art, 2009/11) and of the festival Music Tones at Beton 7 (2011/15). In 2018, Subways released her personal CD with the art songs “Grafomena” by I. Valette. She participated in the movies Matriarchy and Canto si tu Cantas by film director N. Kornilios.
In 2021-2022, she sang the role of Diamanto in the premiere of the opera Andronica by Alexander Grec in the fully orchestrated version (Olympia Theatre). In 2024, she interpreted the role of Erofili in a new production of Trisevgeni by Tassos Rossopoulos for the National Opera of Greece.
She has been actively involved in vocal pedagogy for the last 12 years. She works as a voice instructor in the Music and Theatre Arts Department at Deree – The American College of Greece and in the Philippos Nakas Conservatory. Human voice as a unified whole is her inspirational motivation. Over the years of practice, she keeps moving across disciplines, developing embodied voice research through advanced artistic projects; as a member of the Music Theatre Company Eutopia, she uses the solid grounding of her classical training to explore the dialogue of the singing voice with various art forms, engaging with new ways to encourage vocal improvisation within contemporary performances.
Her first collaboration with EUTOPIA dates back to 2016. She joined the Company as a member in 2020. She has participated in the performances: Pietà (AndriyivskyFest, Kiev 2018), Free Besieged (Protovoulia ’21) and Shakespeare Electrified (Torino Fringe Festival 2023).
During 2023/24, she participated in a series of concerts promoting the work of the Collective, an international cooperative of distinguished contemporary composers, in New York. She is also hosting a series of lecture-recitals on classical music in Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall. Since 2022, she works as a program annotator for Olympia City Music Theatre “Maria Callas” and Megaron.
She recently started her own radio show about classical music on National Radio.