Spyros Manesis (Athens, 1978) is a Greek jazz pianist and composer. In 2001, he obtained a diploma in jazz piano from the Athenaeum Conservatory, studying under George Kontrafouris (jazz piano) and Sylvio Syros (jazz improvisation). In 2004, he earned a degree in classical piano from the Athenaeum Conservatory, with his teacher being Marianna Aivazova. He continued his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he completed two cycles of studies with the highest honors: a Bachelor's degree in 2008 and a Master's degree in 2010, under the guidance of Karel Boehlee, Hans Vroomans, Kris Goessens, Rob van Bavel, and Harmen Fraanje. He has attended jazz piano improvisation and ensemble coaching seminars with John Taylor, Baptiste Trotignon, Antonio Farao, and Aaron Goldberg. He is also a graduate of the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA).
He has performed in concerts in countries such as Cyprus, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the USA, Colombia, and China. His collaborations include notable names from Greece and abroad, and as a soloist, he has worked with the Portuguese symphonic orchestra Orquestra do Norte, the Contemporary Music Orchestra of ERT, and the municipal symphonic orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki. He is a member of Spiral Trio, alongside Arion Giftakis and Anastasios Gouliaris, with whom he has recorded two albums and performs at festivals and clubs both in Greece and abroad. In 2023, he represented Greece with Spiral Trio as an official participant at the Athens Jazz Festival. As a leader, he has released the albums TRIOISM (ANKh JAZZ, 2008), Undelivered (JACC Records, 2011), First Takes in duo with French saxophonist Christine Corvisier (Unit Records, 2016), Spiral Trio (ANKh JAZZ, 2017), Well Excuse Me with the quartet TFATFY (Ihaveadrum, 2018), and Broken Blue (Odradek Records, 2022) with Spiral Trio.
Spyros Manesis is a jazz piano professor at the Jazzart School of Jazz, has taught at the Athenaeum and Music Praxis Conservatories, served as a visiting professor at the Department of Music Studies at the Ionian University (2010-11), and has organized and directed a four-day seminar on jazz piano, commissioned by the Greek National Opera (ELSO) in 2018.
