Maria Kotrotsou lives and works in Paris. A sound designer and composer for films, video games, and multimedia projects, she is also a pianist and performer. Her work blends classical, neoclassical, and electronic music to create immersive and emotionally resonant sound experiences.
Drawn to music from a very young age, Maria began playing the piano at six and, four years later, won the Royal Academy of London competition with distinction. In 2005, she graduated from the National Conservatory of Athens with honors, while simultaneously completing her law studies. She furthered her training through international seminars and masterclasses with renowned composers including Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Ibrahim Maalouf and Kim Won Kok.
Settling in France, Maria pursued advanced classical piano studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris while focusing on composition and electronic music. With several years of experience, she creates soundscapes for cinema, theater, video games, and other multimedia projects, collaborating with developers, directors, and creative teams around the world.
As a performing artist, Maria presents her compositions on piano and keyboards in prestigious venues such as the Musée d’Orsay and La Seine Musicale in Paris. Her concerts, blending classical melodies and electronic rhythms, attract audiences of all ages across Europe and the United States.
Maria has released six albums and four singles and composes for cinema, theater, and international performances. In 2024, she paid tribute to Franz Kafka with her composition Kafka’s Dream on the centenary of the writer’s death, under the auspices of the Union of Filmmakers and Writers of Kalamata (Greece) and the Prague Cultural Center. Three of her pieces – Pensées, Nostalgia, and Don’t Stop Dreaming – were included in the Neoclassical Collection (2018, 2020, 2021), alongside works by Philip Glass, Ludovico Einaudi, and Phil Collins, while Nous Deux appeared in the Instrumental Classic Collection 2018.
In 2020, she was nominated for Best Original Music and Sound Design for the series Seltsam (Season 2) at the Die Seriale festival in Germany. She also served as a jury member at the Paris Film Festival in 2017 and has been interviewed by international media, including CNN, as well as newspapers, radio stations, and magazines in France, the United States, the UK, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Poland, India, and Greece.
Passionate about storytelling through sound, Maria combines technical expertise and creativity to bring every project to life. She masters the full audio workflow – from composition and recording to editing, mixing, and mastering – adapting her approach to the specific needs of each production, ensuring that sound design becomes an integral part of the musical and narrative identity.
