Spyros Tombras

Spyros Tombras was born in 1928. He studied violin and advanced theory at the Athens Conservatoire graduating in 1949 with Distinction and an award. He continued his violin studies in Vienna and then with a scholarship from Daad, at the State Academy of Music in Cologne. In 1952, he received the first prize at the Panhellenic Music Competition of Thessaloniki, and a few years later, in 1959, he received a diploma in counterpoint and fugue from the Athens Conservatoire. He was a principal of the Athens State Orchestra, a concertmaster of the ERT Symphony Orchestra, and a violin professor at the Athens Conservatoire. Furthermore, he appeared as a soloist with the ASO and the National Radio Foundation Orchestra (EIR).

Since 1955, he had been intensely involved with chamber music, which is when he began studying sonatas for violin and piano with his wife, the distinguished pianist Chara Tombra, achieving success at the Geneva International Competition, where they received an honorary diploma. Since 1956 they made a number of successful appearances, with programs of remarkable quality and difficulty. Tombras died in 2011.

Source: Greek Archives