Composer and musician Dinos Constantinides, a native of Greece, began teaching at Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1978, where he was honored with the Boyd Professorship of Composition, the highest honor bestowed upon professors at LSU, in 1986.

Constantinides was born on May 10, 1929. After completing studies in music theory and violin at the Greek Conservatory in Athens, he studied violin at the Juilliard School in New York City. He later received a master’s degree in music from Indiana University and a PhD in composition from Michigan State University. In 2010, the University of Macedonia, Greece, awarded him an honorary doctorate. For ten years, he played in the violin section of the Athens State Orchestra.

In 1994, he was named a Distinguished Teacher by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. In addition to teaching and composing music, his other responsibilities have included serving as the director of the LSU Contemporary Music Festival and the Louisiana Sinfonietta. In 2010, the Louisiana Sinfonietta announced an annual award for classical musicians in Constantinides’s name for any resident or student in the state between the ages of 18 and 35.

Constantinides has composed more than 230 works in a wide range of media, which have been performed throughout the world and received numerous prizes, including first prizes in the 1981 Brooklyn College International Chamber Competition, the 1985 First Midwest Chamber Opera Conference, and the 1997 Delius Composition Contest Grand Prize. He was the recipient of the 1985 American New Music Consortium Distinguished Service Award, the 1989 Glen Award of l’Ensemble of New York, and numerous Standard Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). His orchestral works have been performed to rave reviews by symphony orchestras throughout the world, including premiers at Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has visited in Europe and Asia frequently as a conductor, composer, and lecturer.

He has served on the board of directors of many societies, including the Society of Composers, the College Music Society, the National Association of Composers/U.S.A., and the Music Teachers National Association. He is a member of ASCAP and has been an evaluator for the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

His compositions include the following:

• “Theme and Variation for Piano”
• “Small Lemon Tree for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, or Soprano, Soprano, Alto, and String Orchestra”
• “Small Lemon Tree for Soprano, Mezzo Oboe Cello, and Piano”
• “Diakos Suite for Orchestra”
• “Mountains of Epirus for violin and orchestra”
• “Antigone: Hymn to the Human Spirit for Tenor and Orchestra”
• “Text: Sophocles”
• “Symphony No. 2 (Introspections) for Orchestra”
• “Midnight Fantasy for Orchestra”
• “Midnight Fantasy III for Wind Orchestra”