Giannis Papazisis

The flautist Yiannis Papazisis, was born in Argostoli in 1908.

Papazisis graduated from the Hellenic Conservatory in 1934-35. His diploma exams were held on April 13, 1935, and were the first for flute at the Hellenic Conservatory. The examining committee consisted of Konstantinos Sfakianakis, Dionysios Lavragas, Ioannis Psarouda, Dimitrios Levidis, Marios Varvoglis, and Antiochos Evaggelatos and the program in which he was examined was particularly demanding and included works from the German and French schools of flute. More specifically, Studies no. 3 and no. 21 by Fürstenau, Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major (KV. 313), Cecile Chaminade’s Concertino, Sonatina op. 12 by Philipp Jarnach and Solo de Concert no. 6, op. 82 by Jules Demersseman. Papazisis’ exams were a success and he received the Flute Diploma with a grade of “Excellent” and 1st prize with a prize of 1,000 drachmas.

For a number of years, he was a member of the Greek National Opera Orchestra and from 1950 of the ERT – Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. Subsequently, on April 13, 1957, he was hired as Second Principal Flutist at the Athens State Orchestra from where he retired at the end of 1973. He died in Athens in 1975 at the age of 68.

Source: Theodora Iordanidou