Kaiti Kopanitsa

Kaiti Kopanitsa, born in Thessaloniki in 1929, to a Spartiate family, grew up in Athens, where she studied harmony and singing at the Athens Conservatoire. Following her husband Dimitris Kopanitsa, she settled in London in 1952, where she continued her studies in classical singing with Helene Isepp and other renowned teachers, as well as with Pierre Bernac in Paris. She also studied theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She soon began making international appearances in concert halls and on the radio, and in 1960, she became the first non-French singer to win the First Prize at the International French “Melodie” Competition in Paris. Through this competition, she met the composer Francis Poulenc, who accompanied her on the piano in a series of concerts featuring his songs. She was accepted at the Hamburg Opera, but for personal reasons, she returned to London.

She studied Elizabethan song with Peter Pears and German Lied with Berthold Goldschmidt, who accompanied her in recitals of songs by Mahler and Hugo Wolf. In 1964, she finally returned to Athens. Due to the dictatorship, she decided to engage in a form of personal resistance and limited her performances to concerts at foreign cultural institutes in Athens and sporadic appearances abroad. After the fall of the dictatorship, she intensified her concerts throughout Greece and collaborated with the Third Program, making many recordings of early vocal music as well as English, French, German, and Spanish classical songs. She participated in the Musical August of Manos Hadjidakis and served on the jury of the Maria Callas International Competition. Additionally, she taught singing, collaborating with the Athenaeum Conservatory for more than 20 years.

Source: Athens Voice