Aris Garoufalis
Pianist
He was born on the island of Samos. He studied piano at the Greek National Conservatory and got his diploma in 1958. He then continued his studies at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg (1962-1963), at the Santiago de Compostela Music Academy in Spain (1964) and at the Vienna Music Academy, from where he received a Piano Soloist Diploma in 1969. He was also a graduate of the University of Athens Law School. As a soloist, he collaborated with all orchestra ensembles in Greece and with many abroad, such as the Camerata Academica of Salzburg, the Pro Musica Orchestra of Oxford, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Singapore, the Sofia Radio/TV Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow etc. He gave many recitals in Greece and abroad (Austria, Spain, Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria). He served as Director of the State Orchestra of Athens, piano instructor and director at the Athens Conservatory, Chairman of the BoD of the Gina Bahauer Music Association, General Secretary of the BoD of "Maria Callas" Scholarship Foundation, honorary president of the Greek branch of the international organization E.P.T.A. (European Piano Teachers Association), President or jury member in many national and international piano competitions. He was awarded the First Prize and Excellence Outstanding Proficiency from the National Conservatory (1958), the first prize of the Panhellenic Competition for Young Pianists for the Chopin year (1961) and the first prize of the National Competition for Young Musicians, organized in 1963 by the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 he was honored by the Athens Academy with the "Spiros Motsenigos" Prize for his artistic and educational contribution. He died in Athens on 2.2.2013. He was a member of the GNO Artistic Committee in the period 1974/80 and 1981/88.