The problems

The lack of privately owned housing and funding as well as the low tuition fees created many problems in the operation of the institution. Its historical course has always been linked to the long-suffering recent history of our country. The institution was otherwise founded one year after the bankruptcy of Charilaos Trikoupis. Since then it experienced the shocks of the International Financial Control after the Greek- Turkish war of 1897, the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922, the bankruptcy of 1932 that followed the crisis of 1929, and of course the two world wars.

During World War II the Conservatory suspended its operation. Much of the conservatory’s historical and artistic record was destroyed by bombing, along with any assets it possessed. In 1951, after superhuman efforts, the conservatory managed to rebuild itself. Among those who sent money to support the Conservatory was the great Greek conductor Dimitris Mitropoulos.

The recovery

The conservatory’s ensembles almost immediately began to make frequent appearances not only within but outside our island and to win many prizes and distinctions. At the same time, its students began to grow exponentially.

Since 1955, the Conservatory of Corfu has been given the right to award degrees with which its graduates become music teachers. With this decision, dozens of graduates of the Conservatory have been appointed to date as public teachers of secondary and primary education.

Despite its problems, the Conservatory of Corfu, without forgetting its social character, often organizes concerts where revenues are given to support other charities, such as the concert of the string orchestra in Athens (War Museum) in 1994 for the support of the Panhellenic Association of volunteer Blood Donors “Ilias Politis”.

Art stations in the history of the institution

• In 1997 the orchestra of the Conservatory appeared again in Athens, at the Athenian Municipal Theatre, as a guest of the Municipality of Athens.

• In 2003, the Symphony orchestra of the conservatory collaborated with the singer Vasilis Lekkas and in 2004 with Maria Farantouri. Both concerts were in favour of blood donation.

• In 2006, as part of the global celebration of the Mozart Year, in cooperation with the Paris Orchestra “Collegium Opus 91”, the conservatory presented the Mozart Festival in Corfu, where the composer’s symphonic works and the opera “Bastien und Bastienne” were performed at a series of events.

• In 2009 the orchestra of the Conservatory appeared in the Holy Metropolitan Church of Agios Georgios (Saint George) of the Greeks in Venice. This was the first concert abroad and at the same time a first attempt to bring together music inspired by Orthodox music with the audience of the most important European centres. The concert program included music inspired by Orthodox and Catholic worship. The concert featured the world premiere of David’s Psalms No. 12 & No. 70 by the most important living Greek composer, academic and professor in the University of Boston, Theodoros Antoniou and it was written especially for the concert and it was dedicated to the conductor Kimonas Chytiris.

• In 2010, the orchestra performed at Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino) in the Cappela Palatina hall, invited by the Municipality of Naples and the Greek Community of Naples and Campania, again with a religious content. In the concert, the play Epitaph II of Theodoros Antoniou was presented for the first time in the world, which was written especially for this concert and this in turn was dedicated to the conductor of the Conservatory.

• In 2014, the Ionian Brass of the Conservatory (brass band orchestra) was presented at Athens Concert Hall.

• In 2014, the composer Thodoros Antoniou was named Honorary Director of Studies of the Conservatory of Corfu.

• In June 2015, the Conservatory of Corfu participated in the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the presence of Greeks in Campania, Italy in a series of events held in Naples. As part of these events, the Conservatory of Corfu become twinned with the historic Naples Conservatory San Pietro a Majella, the conservatory studied by almost all composers of the Ionian Music School (Mantzaros, Napoleon and Georgios Lambelet, Xyndas, Lavrangas and many others). In the framework of the twinning ceremony, the conductor of the Conservatory of Corfu Kimonas Chytiris conducted the orchestra of San Pietro a Majella with works by Ionian composers who studied in Naples.

• In 2015, the orchestra of the Conservatory of Corfu in collaboration with the Chamber Opera of Corfu and the San Giacomo Choir presented the opera of Pietro Mascagni “Cavelleria Rusticana”.

• In February 2017, the Conservatory orchestra presented at the “Michael Cacoyannis Foundation” in collaboration with well-known actors where it was presented a tribute to the 160 years since the death of our national poet Dionysios Solomos.

• In May 2017, the Conservatory orchestra was presented to the Greek Parliament to celebrate the 153^rd anniversary of the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece. The Conservatory of Corfu was the first Corfiot artistic institution to appear in our National Parliament.

• In December 2018, the music ensembles of the Conservatory in collaboration with AHEPA gave a concert of religious music, at the Duomo of Corfu and collected half a ton of food for the Social Grocery of the Metropolis.

• In July 2019, AHEPA and the Conservatory of Corfu presented a concert – tribute to Manos Hadjidakis with Maria Farantouri as a guest in favour of the goals of AHEPA. The National Herald of New York paid a tribute to this concert.

The most important honorary distinctions of the Conservatory of Corfu

The greatest distinction for our Conservatory, as well as for our special homeland, was the award to the Conservatory by Academy of Athens on December 30, 1997.

In 2012, the Conservatory was honoured with the prize of the Music and Theatre Critics Award (Karolos Koun Awards) as the best cultural institution operating in the region.

In 2019, the Gina Bachaeur – Nikolaos Doumpas Institution in turn awarded the Conservatory of Corfu as the best regional cultural institution.

The Conservatory of Corfu today

The Conservatory currently employs more than 30 professors and has about 300 students. The tuition fees of the Conservatory remain extremely low and this is because the Conservatory has never forgotten its social character. The needy students study for free.

The Conservatory nowadays houses a very remarkable library with many old and rare music editions, with a capacity of over 2000 pieces of music and books. Most of them were bought in the early 20^th century directly from Italy. Many of the books are first editions. Moreover, there are many rare pieces of composers of the Ionian Music School. Most of them, otherwise, were directors or professors of the Conservatory. The library also keeps the valuable archive of the Conservatory (what was saved), which records the historical course of the institution. There is also a record store containing hard-to-find gramophone records. The piano of the English commissioner Sir Thomas Maitland is one of the exhibits of the Conservatory.

The Conservatory of Corfu is a milestone in the history of Greek Music. During its centuries-old presence, many later renowned musicians who excelled in Greece and abroad attended its classes. The dream of the Conservatory to acquire its own housing unfortunately remains unfulfilled, after 125 years of life. After all, its financial resources (the minimum contributions of its members and the low tuition fees) do not allow it such luxury.

However, the Conservatory of Corfu, by making a titanic effort, tries with a unique weapon the love of hundreds of Corfiots who trust in it the education and mental cultivation of their children, to hold high the flag of our civilisation and music culture and to offer the youth of our island, in addition to the high-level music education, something even more valuable and rare: ideas and values.