Giorgos Leotsakos

A champion of Greek art music, musicologist and music critic Giorgos Leotsakos was born in Athens in 1935. In 1952, after finishing high school, he turned to journalism for a living. Simultaneously, he studied music theory under composers Konstantinos Kydoniatis and Yannis Andreou Papaioannou (earning a diploma in counterpoint and fugue from the Hellenic Conservatory in 1964). Subsequently, he was self-taught. As a critic for 44 years, primarily for newspapers such as "Kathimerini," "Mesimvrini" (1959-1965), "Ta Nea," "To Vima" (1965-1979), "Proini" (1979-1980), "Eleftheri Gnomi" (1983-1985), and "Proti" (1986-1989), he experienced firsthand the longstanding "misfortune" of Greek music, which established him as a pioneer in its scientific research and documentation. In 1981, he became the first musicologist worldwide to visit isolated socialist Albania: deeply understanding its unique and impressive system of music education and production, he became more aware of the causes of the decline in Greek music. His research material on Greek art music was first published in the "World Biographical Dictionary" by "Ekdotiki Athinon" (1983-1988), but mainly in the globally renowned English music encyclopedias "Grove": in the first edition (20 volumes, London, 1980) and the second edition (29 volumes, London, 2001: 50 entries on Greek composers and, for the first time globally, 25 entries on Albanian composers) of "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" and in "The New Grove Dictionary of Opera," 4 volumes (London, 1992). In 1999, the "University of Crete Press" released a CD with the study "Lychno Under the Bushel" featuring unknown works by Greek composers for piano from the period 1847-1908, discovered by him (Iosif Liveralis, Samaras, Kamilieris, Spinellis, Levidis, etc.). He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Athens Concert Hall Organization.