Giannis Zouganellis

Giannis Zouganellis (1938-2006) was a Greek tubist. Born in Piraeus in 1938, he studied at the National Conservatory and the Athens Conservatory. His name became synonymous with the tuba.

He was a distinguished tuba performer with international acclaim. He studied at the National Conservatory, graduating in tuba in 1962 from the class of V. Sozopoulos, and at the Athens Conservatory, earning a tuba diploma in 1967 with distinction and first prize from the class of A. Kypreos. In 1965, he represented Greece at the 16th International Music Seminar in Belgium and the following year, by invitation of the Belgian government, appeared on local radio and television. In Athens, he made his first appearance during the events of the Second Week of Contemporary Music (1967) with the first Greek work for tuba, “Six Likes” by Th. Antoniou. In 1967, he also played with the Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Athens in the first Greek performance of R.V. Williams’ famous tuba concerto.

In 1974, he presented in Athens, in recital, ten works by Greek composers in their world premiere. He performed as a soloist with the Athens State Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, the ERA Symphony Orchestra, the Hungarian Philharmonic, and the Symphony Orchestras of Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Bulgaria. He played a decisive role in the creation of a Greek “literature” of works for the tuba. Critics have often recognized that “tuba and Zouganellis are synonymous,” ranking him among the top tubists of our time. Significant Greek composers (S. Michaelidis, Zoras, Kydoniatis, G.A. Papaioannou, Sisilianos, Dragatakis, Poniridis, Antoniou, etc.) wrote more than 55 works for the tuba specifically for him, which he premiered in Greece and abroad. Concertos for tuba have also been composed by V. Delli, Ch.B. Alexopoulos, K. Sfetsas, among others. He played many times in Greece and abroad: France, England, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Canada, Cyprus, the former Soviet Union, and the USA. He was a member of the Symphony Orchestra of ERT – ERA and a professor of tuba and trumpet at the Apollonian Conservatory from its foundation and later at the Nikos Skalkottas Conservatory. In 1989, he recorded a disc featuring original works for solo tuba, as well as adaptations and transcriptions, with piano accompaniment by Natalia Michaelidou. Giannis Zouganellis gained great fame for his improvisations as well.

Apart from music, he was seriously involved in poetry and prose, achieving brilliant performances in these fields as well. He was a co-editor of the magazine “Critique and Texts” and the musical publication “Nisos.” In 1985, he completed his autobiographical testimony “The Sound of the Tuba,” first published by “Kastaniotis” (1999) and reissued in a two-volume form with subtitles “With Two Simple Lines” and “Places are Sounds” (Gavrielides, 2004). In the year of the publication of “The Sound of the Tuba,” he printed his first and only poetic collection, “We Are All One Minute of Silence” (Gavrielides).

In August 2006, he passed away at the age of 68, leaving a significant musical legacy to the young musicians of the next generations.

Source: Wikipedia