Leadership & Administration
Meet the people who play a critical role at MHC, supporting its reputation for excellence.
Kostis Gaitanos
Founder and Chairman of the Examination Committees.
Pianist, Musicologist, and Teacher
First Prize Winner of the 1963 International Piano Competition in Salzburg, acclaimed pianist, musicologist, and teacher Kostis Gaitanos has performed internationally in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in a vast range of European, African, and Asian countries including Lebanon, Israel, India, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Japan. In the context of those performances, Mr. Gaitanos gave the first performances of many works by Greek composers, and his performances of Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto and Sergei Prokoviev’s 1st Piano Concerto were particularly notable.
In addition to his significant performance career, Mr. Gaitanos has enjoyed a distinguished career as a leader in the cultural sector; musicologist, and teacher. From 1987-1990, he was Vice-President of the Board of the Greek National Opera, and for two years during the same period, served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. A highly respected musicologist, Mr. Gaitanos has presented many remarkable and relevant studies through lectures, radio programs, and seminars on various topics including: Ancient Greek Music; the Evolution of the Piano from the 16th-century to the Present Day; the 27 Mozart Piano Concertos; the 9 Symphonies and 32 Sonatas of Beethoven; the Lieder of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms; the Etudes of Chopin and Liszt; the History of Opera in the Classical and Romantic Periods; and “the Greek musical phenomenon”, an in-depth study of Greek music from ancient times to the present day.
Mr. Gaitanos’ extensive list of published works include His Majesty the Piano (Typothito Publishing, 2004); Nine Symphonies, a book with musicological, aesthetic, historical comments and morphological analyses of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies (Nakas Publishing, 2006); Musica Enchiriadis, a music textbook for students, teachers, and music lovers (Nakas Publishing, 2007); the two-volume The History of Greek Music (Nakas Publishing, 2011); and As I Met and Lived (Stratis Publications, 2013).A highly respected and sought-after teacher, Mr. Gaitanos taught at the Hellenic Conservatory from 1968-1998, serving as its Director of Studies from 1980-1998. In September 1999, together with pianist and professor Betty Barzouka, Mr. Gaitanos founded The Musical Horizons Conservatory – the Educational, Cultural and Artistic Center in Athens. Recognized by the Ministry of Culture, The Musical Horizons Conservatory has become one of the most important music institutions in Greece.
Mr. Gaitanos is a member of state committees, renowned international piano competition juries, and has been honored with awards and accolades in Greece and internationally. In December 2007, the Academy of Athens honored him with the Music Award for his many years of invaluable contributions to the Greek music scene.
Born in Athens, Greece, Mr. Gaitanos studied at the Hellenic Conservatory with Alex Thurneissen and continued his studies in Germany, Austria, and Portugal on a scholarship from the Gulbekian Foundation with distinguished teachers including Eric von Tenberg, Karl Engel, Maurice Eisenberg, and Sandor Wegh.
Betty
Barzouka-Gaitanou
Artistic Director and Piano Teacher
Acclaimed pianist and piano teacher Betty Gaitanou-Barzouka has performed in numerous concerts as a recitalist, soloist with orchestras, and with chamber music ensembles.
In addition to the more traditional piano repertoire, Ms. Gaitanou-Barzouka has a special interest in the modern piano repertoire, and for many years, has organized concerts with the aim of highlighting and promoting contemporary Greek works. She has recorded works by Greek composers on radio and television; premiered many works in concerts produced by the Union of Greek Composers; and collaborated regularly with the Cyprus Radio Foundation.
A renowned piano teacher in Greece for the last 35 years, Ms. Gaitanou-Barzouka has offered her knowledge and experience to a number of gifted young pianists, many of whom have distinguished themselves in the international concert arena. She is also the Founder of the piano ensemble Pianorizons. Composed of 10 graduate students and renowned musicians, Pianorizons specializes in the modern piano repertoire, and contemporary Greek composers have written works specifically for their ensemble.
A native of Athens, Greece, Ms. Gaitanou-Barzouka took her first piano lessons from her mother, and her musical gifts were evident from a very young age. She graduated with a diploma as a piano soloist, First Prize and Distinction, under the tutelage of Kostis Gaitanos from the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens. She then continued her studies with Maria Curcio and Karl Engel and participated in seminars of prominent artists including Leon Fleisher, Nikolai Petrof, and Paul Badura-Skoda. In addition to her piano studies, Ms. Gaitanou-Barzouka studied advanced theory and composition with Ouranias and Stamatis Ioannidis, Giannis A. Papaioannou, and Giannis Ioannidis.
Krystalia
Gaitanou
Head of Educational Programming and Communication
Violist
Born in Athens, Greece to musician parents, violist Krystalia Gaitanou has collaborated with and performed under the direction of world-renowned artists including Kurt Masur, James Levine, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Leonard Slatkin, Philippe Entremont, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukerman and Philippe Auguin.
A member of the Greek National Opera Orchestra, Ms. Gaitanou has performed with the Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the National Symphony Orchestra of ERT, and important symphony orchestras internationally including the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Santo Domingo Festival Symphony Orchestra, the Kurt Masur Seminar Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Since 2008, she has been a regular guest of pianist and conductor Philippe Entremont at the Santo Domingo Music Festival.
In the summer of 2009, Ms. Gaitanou was selected to participate in the Tanglewood Music Festival under the direction of James Levine, and in that same year, presented the first national performance of works for viola by the award-winning Greek-American composer George Tsontakis at the Athens Festival. Passionate about chamber music, Ms. Gaitanou has participated in international viola and chamber music seminars with Hartmut Rhode in France, Wilfried Strehle at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, and Michael Ouzounian, Craig Mumm, and Steven Dann in New York City. As a soloist, Ms. Gaitanou has performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Broadway Bach Ensemble in New York; music by Robert Schumann at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London; and works with the Athens State Orchestra String Ensemble and the Athens Municipal Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Gaitanou studied violin, viola, and advanced music theory at The Musical Horizons Conservatory, receiving degrees in Viola and Harmony and a Diploma in Viola with distinction, First Prize, and a Gold Medal. She is also a graduate of the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2003, as a scholarship recipient of the Athens Concert Hall (bequest of Alexandra Trianti), Ms. Gaitanou studied viola in Paris, at the C.N.R de Rueil-Malmaison with Vincent Aucante and at the C.N.R de Boulogne-Billiancourt in Paris with Isabelle Lequien, obtaining, respectively, the Diplome Superieur and the Diplome de Perfectionnement. In 2007, with scholarships from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, the State Scholarship Foundation, and the Manhattan School of Music (Helen Whitaker Scholarship), Ms. Gaitanou continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City under the tutelage of renowned violinist Karen Dreyfus, obtaining a Master of Music Degree and a Professional Studies Degree in Viola via the university’s distinguished Orchestral Studies program under the direction of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Gaitanou plays on a viola crafted in 1936 by John Wilkinson.