This year marks 100 years since the birth of Leonidas Zoras, one of the most significant figures in Greek musical creation. On this occasion, and to honor this important man, an exhibition is being organized at the Goethe Institute in Athens, which will run from December 6 to 22, featuring material from Zoras’s personal archive. The scientific curation is handled by musicologist and researcher of Zoras’s work, Ms. Sofia Kontosi. Additionally, two concerts featuring works by Leonidas Zoras will be held on December 6 and 15.
Brief History
Zoras was born in Sparta in 1905. He studied music with some of the most important Greek musicians: Riadi, Mitropoulos, Lavrangas, and Kalomiris. He continued his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with: H. Grabner, P. Haeffer, B. Blacher, W. Gmeindl, K. Thomas, F. Steini. After completing his studies, he received various offers from opera houses in Germany to take on the position of chief conductor, but he decided to return to his beloved Greece and assume the position of chief conductor of the Greek National Opera. As Kontosi mentions in her article in Polytomon magazine (issue 13): “Considering it his duty (our emphasis) to return to Greece, he was appointed chief conductor at the GNO, a position he held until 1958.” In 1958, he left the GNO due to opaque procedures by the state in the management of the GNO’s personnel and finances. Characteristic is the excerpt mentioned by Giannis Bastias in the book “Kostis Bastias – Biography” (Kastaniotis Publications, Athens, 2005), which comes from an unpublished text by conductor Totis Karalivanos. It states that “The most characteristic case is that of conductor L. Zoras, who sent a telegram to Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis to intervene and cancel the departure of Giannopoulos (Editor’s note: Giannopoulos was the director of the GNO forced to resign)… Naturally, Zoras was dismissed” (p. 454 of the book).
After his departure from the GNO, the conductor settled in Germany. He remained there for ten years, conducting and composing. He returned to Greece in 1968, when he took over the directorship of the National Conservatory while once again conducting Greek orchestras. He died in Athens in 1987.
Zoras as a Conductor
Leonidas Zoras was one of the pioneers in establishing, in a way, the Greek repertoire at the Greek National Opera. He conducted many premieres of Greek works, and it should not be forgotten that he was the chief conductor of the “National Melodramatic Group” from 1933 to 1936. The “National Melodramatic Group” was founded by Kalomiris and undertook several tours, not only within Greece but also to areas with a Greek diaspora. A highlight for Greek operatic production must be considered the staging of Manolis Kalomiris’s work “The Mother’s Ring” at the Volksoper in Berlin. The conductor of this performance was Zoras. Unfortunately, this performance took place a few months before Greece’s involvement in the Second World War and in territory that was later considered, and was, hostile. Due to the outbreak of the war, and while “The Mother’s Ring” was scheduled to be performed several times until the end of the 1939-1940 season, the Volksoper suspended its operations due to a lack of coal for heating the hall (the source of this information is Thanos Bourlos’s book “With Manolis Kalomiris,” Nikodimos Publications).
Zoras as a Composer
His compositional work should by no means go unnoticed. Like another great Greek conductor, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Zoras had decided to channel his musical talent into two paths: conducting and composing. His most popular work, as Takis Kalogeropoulos notes in his article on Zoras in “Polytomon” magazine, issue 13, was the symphonic poem “Thrylos” (Legend). This work took its final form in 1936, and as Anogeianakis states in the introductory note to the score, “its music, although ‘programmatic’ in essence, has no defined program.” Studying the score of “Thrylos,” one can see the clear influence of the National School of Music on Zoras’s compositional process. The 7/4 and 5/4 rhythms used in some parts of the work are characteristic. “Thrylos” is a work that explores the timbral limits of instruments such as the trumpet, flute, piccolo flute, and clarinet, while adding “warmth” to the sound with the “deep” playing of the strings.
Epilogue
Zoras was an important Greek musician who worked tirelessly to bring prestige to Greece’s musical landscape. It is therefore right that he be honored through these events. We hope this series of events will continue and that other important Greek musicians will be celebrated on their anniversaries.
