Aris Garoufalis

Aris Garoufalis was a distinguished Greek pianist and music educator, born in Samos in 1942. He graduated from the National Conservatory in 1958 with a piano diploma and continued his studies at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg (1962-1963), the Academy of Santiago de Compostela in Spain (1964), and the Vienna Music Academy, where he received a soloist piano diploma in 1969. Additionally, he was a law graduate from the University of Athens.

As a soloist, he collaborated with all Greek symphony and chamber orchestras, as well as the Salzburg Camerata Academica, the Oxford Pro Musica Orchestra, the Singapore Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia Radio Orchestra, the Frankfurt Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, and others. He gave numerous recitals in Greece and abroad, including in Austria, Spain, Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria.

Garoufalis served as the Director of the Athens State Orchestra, a piano professor at the Athens Conservatory, and from 1986, the director of the country’s first Conservatory. He was also the President of the Board of the Gina Bachauer Music Association, the General Secretary of the Maria Callas Scholarship Foundation, the honorary president of the Greek branch of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA), and a judge or committee member in many national and international piano competitions.

He was awarded the First Prize and Excellence Award of the National Conservatory (1958), the First Prize of the Panhellenic Young Performers Piano Competition in the year of Chopin (1961), and the First Prize of the Panhellenic Young Musicians Competition organized by the Thessaloniki State Orchestra in collaboration with “Techni” (1963). In 2012, he was honored by the Academy of Athens with the Spyros Motsenigos Award for his artistic and educational contributions.

Aris Garoufalis passed away on February 2, 2013, at the age of 71.

Source: Sansimera.gr