Alkis Karmpaliotis
Founder and Editor-in-Chief


With Riccardo Muti in 2019, after a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Gigned copy of Javier Camarena's 2018 album, Contrabandista
My name is Alkis Karmpaliotis, I was born in 2006, and I'm currently a Junior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. I have always loved classical music, especially opera, thanks to my parents and music teacher Dr. Carol Ann Aicher.
About Appreciate Opera
I founded this website in 2019 when I was 12 years old. It began as a small opera-themed blog that I shared only with family and close friends. A few months later, I started working on a "How to Appreciate Opera" guide, with the ultimate goal of sharing my passion for music with the world and encouraging other young kids to appreciate opera. In late-2019, I took AppreciateOpera.org public.
Over the next few years, I would continuously expand upon my Appreciate Opera Guide, write over forty articles covering everything from operatic history to performance reviews, and create opera-themed quizzes.
Some of my most popular articles are:
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"Ranking the Top Ten Orchestras in the World" (58,000 views)
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"Ranking the Top Ten Opera Houses in the World" (21,000 views)
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"Where to Sit at the Metropolitan Opera" (22,000 views)
I have also had the pleasure of interviewing several influential musicians and scholars — all of whom I reached out to either through social media or by contacting their agencies — including three GRAMMY winners:
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Anthony Roth Costanzo — GRAMMY-winning counter-tenor
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Lawrence Brownlee — world-renowned Tenor
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Andrew Litton — Music Director of the NYC Ballet and GRAMMY winner
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Gundula Kreuzer — renowned musicologist and Acting Chair of the Yale Department of Music
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Michael Repper — GRAMMY-winning conductor
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Antonello Manacorda — conductor, recently made his Berlin Philharmonic debut
These interviews have been read by thousands of people — and my interview with Brownlee was even cited on Wikipedia.
In September 2023, I began accepting articles from guest writers. Now, AppreciateOpera.org has a staff of several dedicated columnists, including fellow high schoolers, college students, and adults. Later that year, I was approached by an advertising company to write an official review of a new children's book, Welcome to the Opera: Discover the Enchanting World of Opera with Mozart's "The Magic Flute" — hopefully the first of many official reviews to come.
Since its foundation, AppreciateOpera.org has been on the constant rise. From February 2019 to January 2021, the site garnered a measly 7,000 unique visitors; but since then, the site has been viewed by over 100,000 individuals. As of June 2023, AppreciateOpera.org has nearly 2,000 subscribed members. I hope to maintain this upward trajectory and inspire more people to appreciate opera along the way.

Appreciate Opera's growth as of 2023

With Sir John Eliot Gardiner after a lecture on Beethoven's symphonies

At the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University

A card that one of the campers at the workshop made for me! :)
About Alkis!
My favorite composers are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, and Richard Wagner, and my favorite operas are Die Zauberflöte, Tosca, and Tristan und Isolde.
I am also an avid fan of modern musical theater. In the summer of 2023, I worked as an Intern at the Kaufman Music Center Summer Musical Theater Workshop, where I got to help young kids (aged 6-7) learn music and theater. The experience was life-changing; I got to meet amazing people, perform in incredible original shows, and, most importantly, inspire and teach young kids to love and appreciate music.

In addition to music, I also love writing and journalism. In August 2020, I authored my first article for OperaWire.com, the largest opera website in the world, "How Young People Can Get Interested in Opera," and I am currently an OperaWire contributing columnist. In early 2023, I became the Editor-in-Chief of my school newspaper, The Fieldston News, as a sophomore.
My goal is to study musicology in college, then go on to pursue a career as an arts administrator. Regardless of where life takes me, music will always hold a firm place in my heart.
Me teaching the campers some music!
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