Download Pianist and musicologist George

Pianist and musicologist George-Julius Papadopoulos has appeared with various
ensembles and programmes in more than 60 recitals, concerts and international festivals
in Europe and the U.S.A. He has won several distinctions and awards for his studies and
performances, which have been broadcast on Greek Radio & TV, the Third Programme
of the Greek National Radio, the BBC World Service and other radio stations in London.
As a scholar, he specializes in the life and work of German composer Johannes Brahms,
having presented papers at 10 international musicological conferences in Europe and the
U.S.A., while his articles have been published in academic journals in Greece and abroad.
He has given lectures at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the Thessaloniki Opera, the
Greek National Opera and the Benakis Museum in Athens, and has been regularly
contributing articles to the journal Classical Music Review.
He graduated in 1992 from the New Conservatory of Thessaloniki with the Piano
Diploma (achieving the highest honours in his year) and a first prize distinction, as well
as the Degree in Harmony (also with the highest honors in his year). At the same time he
studied at the Department of Musical Studies (Historical Musicology) of the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki.
In September 1992 he commenced his postgraduate studies in Piano at the Royal
Academy of Music, London, with a prestigious Entrance Exhibition “for the quality of
[his] performance and the potential [he] displayed”. For his studies he was awarded
scholarships from the RAM, the Schilizzi Foundation, the Lilian Voudouris Foundation
and the British Council (British Council Fellow). He graduated in 1996 with the LRAM
in Piano Pedagogy, the Diploma of Advanced Studies, and the Master of Music—a
degree awarded by King’s College, University of London, jointly with the Royal
Academy. As part of the academic requirements for his course, he submitted the
following papers: “The Creation of the ‘Soviet Piano School’: Critique of the Rhetoric
and Evaluation of Sources”; “Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust: Dramatic Oratorio
or Secular Cantata?”; “Manolis Kalomiris’ Album for the Children”; and an edition with
commentary of Six Songs by George Bizet.
In 1996 he was offered a Recruitment Award by the University of Washington (UW),
Seattle, to pursue doctoral studies in Historical Musicology (Music History). Since then,
he has written papers on such topics as musical semiology, issues of Brahms scholarship,
the aesthetics of music and the philosophy of art, as well as on performance practice. As
a Teaching Assistant and sole Instructor, George-Julius worked on eight different
courses, three of which where designed and first taught by him. He also assisted two of
his professors with projects involving as diverse skills as using music notation computer
software and researching Russian, German, English, and French sources of 18th-century
operatic performances in Russia (both of these projects were published as books).
In 2000, he was nominated by the entire Music History faculty and the School of Music
for the Excellence in Teaching Award, given annually to the best Teaching Assistant at
the UW. In 2003 he was awarded the annual Adelyn Peck-Leverett Prize for the best
paper in Music History at the UW. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Johannes Brahms
and Nineteenth-Century Comic Ideology,” received the Karl Geiringer Scholarship of
the American Brahms Society for the best American dissertation on a Brahms-related
topic. Other areas of interest include the development of the piano concerto and musical
aesthetics.
Since September 2008 he has been the Artistic Director of the Kavala Municipal
Conservatory, increasing its student body from 430 to 590 in less than 18 months.