Starting from the 2023/24 season Ektoras Tartanis is the new chief conductor of the South Bavarian Philharmonic, with which he is establishing a new symphonic concert series and focusing on the big symphonic repertoire with a special Bruckner emphasis. In order to appeal to the broadest possible audience, he has, among other things, launched the new podcast series “Con fuoco”, where he gives a look behind the scenes of his work and introduces the upcoming symphonic programs.

Ektoras also holds the 1st Kapellmeister position at the Opera House in Freiburg, which he first took on in the 2019/20 season. In that position he serves as musical director of several opera productions and symphony concerts and collaborates with renowned directors such as Herbert Fritsch, Kornél Mundruczó and Andrij Zholdak. Ektoras Tartanis was also the assistant and artistic mentee of Teodor Currentzis, with whom he has worked closely over the last years. 

In June 2021 Ektoras Tartanis got the „Special Prize“ of the "International Khachaturian Conducting Competition 2021" in Jerewan for the best interpretation of Kchachaturians Adagio from the ballet „Spartacus“.

Prior to his current positions he was the 1st Kapellmeister and associate general music director of the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and Symphony Orchestra, were he acquired a wide operatic and symphonic repertoire.  Ektoras Tartanis began his professional career as the musical assistant of the Symphony Orchestra and Opernhaus Wuppertal.  Significant highlights of his career so far were the musical direction of the „Lucia di Lammermoor“ production with MuiscAeterna Orchestra and Choir at the Perm Opera Ballet and Theater in March 2019. His debut with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg together with Patricia Kopatchinskaja was highly acclaimed by the audience and the press. He also assisted Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars at the Salzburger Festspiele in summer 2019 with the production „La clemenza di Tito“. 

Ektoras has worked, among others, with orchestras including the Münchener Rundfunkorchester, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, MusicAeterna Orchestra and Choir (RU) the Athens and Thessaloniki State Orchestra, the Vorarlberger Symphony Orchestra (AUT) and the Lucern Festival Strings (CHE). In 2016, Ektoras founded the Argo Ensemble, an orchestra based in Stuttgart, with which he presented new concert concepts and innovative productions. 

Next to his conducting activities Ektoras Tartanis puts a lot of emphasis on composing and his music gains more and more the attention of a wider audience. On March 26, 2024 his newly composed concerto for harp, baritone and orchestra “Erato Psaltrian” will be premiered at the Konzerthaus Freiburg with the internationally acclaimed Anneleen Lenaerts as a soloist, who is also the dedicatee of this work. He has conducted many premieres such as Tim Benjamin’s chamber opera „The Rosenhahn Experiment“ and his own chamber opera “About the art of living and dying”.

He deepened his conducting studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Clark Rundell and Mark Heron and at the Anton Bruckner Conservatoire in Linz with Ingo Ingensand, where he graduated with honours. He rounded out his academic studies by masterclasses with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder, Juanjo Mena, Lothar Zagrozek and Mark Shanahan.

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