Hector Lappas

Hector Lappas is a violinist, composer and orchestrator with a long-standing presence on the Greek music scene. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest under the distinguished Hungarian violinist Szabadi Vilmos, and attended seminars and masterclasses with leading musicians from the international scene.
From an early age he distinguished himself in major competitions: at the age of 17 he won First Prize at the C.I.C.A.L. International Classical Music Competition in Italy, and in 1993 he advanced to the first round of the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, following international pre-selection. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in Greece and abroad, and in 1996 served as concertmaster of the Municipal Orchestra of Thessaloniki. That same year he joined the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, where he has served ever since as a member of the first violin section.
Alongside his orchestral work, he has pursued a significant creative career as a composer, orchestrator and music producer, blending elements of the classical tradition with contemporary musical influences. In 2000 he formed an ensemble to present his original compositions; in 2002 he gave his first solo concert at the Municipal Theatre of Stavroupolis; and in 2010 he released his debut recording. His works have been featured at major cultural events, including the Dimitria Festival and the TSSO Underground Festival.
In 2013 he founded STORM String Quartet, a pioneering string quartet that bridges the classical tradition with contemporary musical idioms. As artistic director and first violin of the ensemble, he is responsible for its arrangements, transcriptions and original compositional material. With STORM he has performed at major concert venues and international festivals, including the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the International Rhodes Festival, the Apollo Theatre of Syros, Costa Navarino and Sani Resort. A landmark in the quartet's international trajectory was its participation in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — the world's largest performing arts festival — where STORM were selected as the only Greek music ensemble to perform at one of the festival's largest venues. This success led to an invitation to close the 21st Labeaume en Musiques Festival in France. In 2020 they appeared as soloists with the Thessaloniki City Symphony Orchestra in the program "Symphonic Rock STORM". In 2024 they collaborated with Sani Resort as the resident ensemble of the Garden Theatre, and from that year to the present they have been featured in the Candlelight Concerts by Fever productions in Thessaloniki.
Hector's artistic work is animated by a constant pursuit: to find new ways of bringing classical music closer to wider audiences, through original compositions, bold orchestrations and a creative fusion of tradition and contemporary sound.