Philoktetes Economides

Philoktetes Economides, born in Athens in 1889, earned a Ph.D. from the Athens Law School and pursued music studies at the Athens Conservatory, where he later taught advanced music theory and served as director from 1930 to 1939. As an influential educator, he trained many of Greece’s prominent musicians and composers, including Dimitris Mitropoulos and Mikis Theodorakis. He held the position of director at the Piraeus Conservatory from 1924 to 1931 and was an active member of the Athens Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, performing as a violinist (1900-1942) and as a viola soloist (1900-1917).

In 1921, Economides founded the Choir of Athens, which he led in presenting Greece’s first performances of oratorios by renowned composers, including Bach’s Matthäuspassion and Mass in B minor, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Honegger’s Le Roi David, Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. The following year, he co-founded the Athens Folk Concerts series and conducted its performances.

In 1942, he transformed the Athens Conservatory Symphony Orchestra into the Athens State Orchestra, assuming the role of lifelong director-general. Economides remained a key figure in Greek music for more than fifty years, conducting internationally with esteemed ensembles such as the Berlin and London Philharmonics, the Vienna Symphony, the orchestra of St. Cecilia’s Conservatory in Rome, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris, and the Naples Conservatory Orchestra.

Beyond conducting, he orchestrated Greek folk songs and authored textbooks on music. In 1955, with Dino Yannopoulos, he co-organised the first Athens Festival, conducting the Greek National Opera forces in Orpheus and Eurydice (Orfeo ed Eurydice). He also served, without salary, as director of the GNO in 1954. Philoktetes Economides passed away in Athens on 10 December 1957.

Source: National Opera – Educational Virtual Museum