George Tsontakis

George Tsontakis (born 1951-10-24) is an American composer. Born in Astoria, Queens (New York City), he studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at Juilliard from 1974-78, and later with Franco Donatoni at L'Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His music has been performed and broadcast by major orchestras, chamber ensembles, and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan.

Tsontakis was honored with the American Academy's prestigious award for lifetime achievement in 1995. In 2002 he received a Vilar Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2005. Pianist Stephen Hough's recording of Tsontakis's "Ghost Variations" on Hyperion Records was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and was cited by Time magazine as the only classical recording among its 1998 Top Ten Recordings.

A proficient conductor of orchestral and choral music, he is currently the conductor of the Aspen Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble, where he teaches composition and directs the contemporary music series. He was an assistant professor at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music from 1986–1987, and has served on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. A faculty member of the Aspen Music School in Colorado since 1976, he was the founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble from 1991 until 1998. He also serves on the faculty of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

His music has previously been recorded by the KOCH International, New World and Opus One labels, and is published by Theodore Presser.