SPONSORS

Music Library of Greece ‘Lilian Voudouri’

The Music Library of Greece ‘Lilian Voudouri’ (www.mmb.org.gr) was founded in 1997 by The Friends of Music Society, the non-profit organization who, following its initiative to support and promote music to the Greek society, also constructed the Athens Concert Hall. It is the largest music library in Greece, located in the Athens Concert Hall. It was created with the scope to become an information resource centre for music and the fine arts, able to support continuous research and multilevel educational programs. The library’s collections, with more than 145.000 items, are constantly expanding and have a principle focus on western classical European music alongside with all types of Greek music (ancient, Byzantine, traditional and contemporary). The Greek Music Archive was created in order to fulfil the need for an official body specializing in the collection, processing, and documentation of all types of material relevant to Greek music, and it has become a special centre for its preservation and research. The collection contains rare documents, manuscripts, archives and both current and historical publications, all related to ancient, Byzantine, traditional and contemporary Greek music.

The Athens Philharmonia Orchestra

The Athens Philharmonia Orchestra began its musical journey in November 2016, embarking on a mission to systematically explore the cultural and intellectual treasure of the Modern Greek art music creation. It was founded on the aim of performing, recording and generally promoting the art music created during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries within or outside the Greek borders by Greek composers or composers of Greek origin. It is a very significant area of Modern Greek culture that has not been sufficiently appreciated until today.
The Athens Philharmonia Orchestra has already made a remarkable journey in the Greek art scene and aspires to continue contributing to the effort of enriching our musical life. The concerts usually include at least one Greek work, along with pieces from the international repertoire which, despite their major artistic value, are largely unknown to the Greek audience. The orchestra aims to highlight the Greek art music repertoire and at the same time to complement but not compete with existing Greek orchestras.
A substantial part of the works performed by the orchestra has been retrieved and restored through musicological research carried out in Greek universities.
In February 2020, the Swedish record label BIS released Philharmonia's first digital CD with works by Nikos Skalkotas. George Demertzis and Vassilis Varvaresos were the soloists in this album, under the direction of Byron Fidetzis. In August 2020, NAXOS released Philharmonia's second digital CD with works by Vasily Kalafati. Philharmonia's next album will include symphonic works by Yannis Papaioannou that have already been recorded under the attentive eye of the world-renowned Tonmeister, Hans Kipfer, and are scheduled to be released soon. All works are recorded for the first time, while four more CDs are in development, with works by Manolis Kalomiris, Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros and Joseph–Michael Stratico.
For the bicentennial year 2021, and in the midst of a pandemic, APhO directed its activity into producing video recordings of works by Greek composers, creating the series “1821-2021. Liberty-Creation”.
The orchestra is based in “Artemis” Concert Hall, 8 Pythagora Street in Alimos. APhO's chairman is Dr Nikos Maliaras, who is a Professor of Historical Musicology in the University of Athens, and its artistic director is the internationally renowned conductor Byron Fidetzis.