Giannis Ioannidis

He was born on 8 June 1930 in Athens. H studied piano at the Athens Conservatory under Ellie and Spiros Farantatos and music theory with Filoktitis Economides, Th. Vavagiannis and G. Sklavos. He continued his studies at the Music Academy of Vienna, where he studied harpsichord with E.Harrich Schneider, organ with Karl Walter, composition with Otto Siegl as well as orchestral conducting. He graduated in 1963 with honors and award. In the period 1963-1968 he worked as a teacher at the American Female College in Athens. At that time he was also director of the orchestra and choir and organist in the German church in Athens. In 1968 he moved to Caracas, Venezuela, where he initially appeared as a conductor, and later he was appointed artistic director of the State Chamber Orchestra. In 1969 he was appointed professor of composition of contemporary music at the Institute of Caracas Intermusica. In 1971 he was musical director and professor of composition at the Metropolitan University of Caracas. In 1976 he returned to Greece and taught composition at Orfeion Conservatory in Athens (1976-1982). He also served as Artistic Director and advanced theory and composition teacher at Nikos Skalkotas Conservatory (1981-1989), Director of the Athens State Orchestra (1983/89), Consultant on Music Affairs at the Ministry of Culture, Artistic Director at Philippos Nakas Conservatory (1989-1993), professor at the Musical Studies Department of the University of Athens (1991-1994), member of the administrative committee of the Ionian University, member of the BoD of the Greek Composers Union, chairman of various international competition juries and member of the GNO BoD (1981-1988).

Source: Greek National Opera Educational Virtual Museum