School of Philosophy

Department of Music Studies

KONSTANTINOS CHARDAS

Associate Professor in Systematic Musicology with emphasis on Music Theory and Analysis

Sector: Historical and systematic musicology

Room: 923

Kostas Chardas is Associate Professor of Systematic Musicology at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Ha has also taught at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki / Greece, and the MMus course of the European University of Cyprus. He studied piano, accordion and musicology in Greece (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, National Conservatoire, Athinaikon Conservatoire) and England (Trinity College London, University of London and University of Surrey). His research and educational areas: music theory and analysis, 19th to 21st-century music, Greek music, chamber music, theoretical approaches to music performance, Greek pop/rock. He has presented papers in Greek and international conferences (CIM2008, IMS2012, EuroMAC2014, AAWM2019, IMS 2022, ICMS 2026 among others). He is the author of articles on Greek music for Grove Music Online and various academic journals (Musicology, New Sound, among others) and has published in Greek and English (for Cambridge Scholar Press, Bloomsbury Academic, Routledge, among others).

He was invited to give lectures for the Departments of Hellenic Studies of the Columbia University (in 2014) and Harvard University (in 2019). His book “On 20th-Century Greek Music” was published in 2025 by Kallipos Open Academic Publications. He has designed and carried out educational programmes and seminars that were addressed to non-specialist audiences of all ages, for Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and Thessaloniki State Conservatoire. He has been a member of the board of the Hellenic Musicological Society and the founder and coordinator of the study group on musical performance of this Society.

Kostas is also an active pianist. He has given solo piano and chamber music concerts in Greece, U.S.A., England and elsewhere. He is member of Piandaemonium Ensemble (6 pianos – 12 pianists), Alter Sonus Ensemble (with the hornist Kostas Siskos and the cellist Evie Papathanassiou), RiZearch Ensemble (with the Cretan lyra player and singer Manos Pirovolakis and the cellist Evie Papathanassiou) and others. Some representative venues of his concerts: Megaron The Athens Concert Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Steinway Hall (London), St Martins in the Fields (London), Opera America (New York), Palfy Palace (Prague). He has also made four commercial recordings.

Kostas has also composed music for the theatre and choral ensembles.

STUDIES

2005. PhD, University of Surrey
1997. Master in Performance and Related Studies (MMus), University of London
1996. Bachelor in Music, Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
1996. Post-Graduate Certificate, Trinity College of Music, London
1994. Diploma in Piano, Athinaikon Conservatoire
1994. Diploma in Fugue, Athinaikon Conservatoire
1991. Diploma in Counterpoint, Athinaikon Conservatoire
1991. Ptychion in Piano, Athinaikon Conservatoire
1989. Diploma in Harmony, Athinaikon Conservatoire
1985. Diploma in Accordion, National Conservatoire

ACADEMIC – TEACHING CAREER

2026-. Associate Professor, Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (in Systematic Musicology with emphasis on Music Theory and Analysis).
2006-2026: Tutor. Lecturer, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (in Systematic Musicology with emphasis on Music Theory and Analysis).
2024-2025. Teaching of 8 lectures for the educational programme 65+ of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki.
2020-2022. Teaching in the Master’s programme “Music, Music Performance”, European University Cyprus.
2019-2020. Teaching of 10 lectures in the continuing education programme “Greek music from antiquity up to the present”, University of Aegean.
Lecture for the Harvard Summer Program in Greece 2019, Harvard University.
Lecture for The Program in Hellenic Studies, Columbia University.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Music theory and analysis
Music performance and analysis
Greek music
Cultural studies
Music of the 19th, 20th and 21th- centuries

COURSES

Seminar: Music Performance and Analysis
Music and its Contexts: Cultural and Analytical Approaches
Theory and Practice of Renaissance Music (Counterpoint) I
Theory and Practice of Renaissance Music (Counterpoint) I

PUBLICATIONS (Selection)

Books / Editor in volumes

Kostas Chardas. On 20th-Century Greek Music (Kallipos, Open Academic Editions, 2024). https://dx.doi.org/10.57713/kallipos-1038. [in Greek]
Kostas Chardas, Giorgos Sakallieros & Ioannis Fulias (eds.), 9th Musicological Conference: “Variations, elaborations, transformations” (Conference proceedings, under the auspices of the Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki, 1-3 December 2017), Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki 2021. [in Greek]
Kostas Chardas, Petros Vouvaris, Kostas Kardamis, Giorgos Sakallieros & Ioannis Fulias (eds.), 8th Musicological Conference: “Influences and cross-influences” (Conference proceedings, under the auspices of the Hellenic Musicological Society, Athens, 25-27 November 2016), Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki 2019. [in Greek]
Ioannis Fulias, Petros Vouvaris, Kostas Kardamis & Kostas Chardas (eds.), 7th Musicological Conference: “Music, language and arts” (Conference proceedings, under the auspices of the Hellenic Musicological Society, Corfu, 30 October – 1 November 2015), Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki 2016. [in Greek]
Ioannis Fulias, Petros Vouvaris, Giorgos Kitsios & Kostas Chardas (eds.), Music and Musicology. Present and future (Conference proceedings, under the auspices of the Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki, 21-23 November 2014), Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki 2015. [in Greek]
Kostas Chardas, The Music for Solo Piano of Yannis A. Papaioannou up to 1960: An Analytical, Biographical and Contextual Approach (Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010).
Costas Tsougras, Danae Stefanou, Kostas Chardas (eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference Beyond the Centres: Musical Avant-gardes since 1950 (Thessaloniki: School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1-3 July 2010). http://btc.web.auth.gr

Critical Musical Editions

Kostas Chardas (ed. of 2nd edition), Yannis A. Papaioannou, Piano Pieces for Children (Athens: PHILIPPOS NAKAS THE MUSIC HOUSE, 2010).
Kostas Chardas (ed. of 2nd edition), Yannis A. Papaioannou, 14 Children Portraits (Athens: PHILIPPOS NAKAS THE MUSIC HOUSE, 2009).
Kostas Chardas (ed. of 2nd edition), Yannis A. Papaioannou, 24 Preludes (Athens: PHILIPPOS NAKAS THE MUSIC HOUSE, 2007).

Chapters in books / Articles in journals / Entries in encyclopedias / Publications in Conference Proceedings

"Yannis A. Papaioannou, the Composer, the Teacher, the Quest and the Pioneer", in Yannis A. Papaioannou: The Composer, the Teacher, the Quest and the Pioneer (Athens: Benaki Museum - Historical Archives, 2004), 14-17. [In Greek]
"Different Styles/Common Thread: Cyclic Forms and Principles in the Different Stylistic Phases of the Greek Composer Yannis A. Papaioannou up to 1965", in Rimantas Janeliauskas (ed.), Proceedings of the 6th International Music Theory Conference, Principles of music composing: Phenomenon of a Cycle (Vilnius: Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, 2006), 37-45.
"Y. A. Papaioannou - The Twelve-Note Works of the 1950s': Analytical Issues on Formal Articulation from Twelve-Note and Other Parameters", in Costas Tsougras (ed.), Music Theory and Analysis - Methodology and Praxis, Proceedings of the Symposium 29 September - 1 October 2006 (Thessaloniki, Thermi: Department of Music Studies Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2006), 72-81. [In Greek]
[with Maria Alexandru] "Functions and Images in Greek Art Music Utilizing Byzantine Echoi", in E. Cambouropoulos, R. Puncurtt, M. Solomos, D. Stefanou, C. Tsougras (eds.), Musical Structure Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (CIM 08) (Thessaloniki: Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 3-6 July 2008). http://web.auth.gr/cim08/
"Old Ideas in New Contexts: The Presence and (Re)interpretation of Tonal Archetypes in 20th-century Music", in Janeliauskas, Rimantas (ed.), Proceedings of the 8th International Music Theory Conference, Principles of music composing: Musical Archetypes (Vilnius: Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, 2008), 66-73.
"Cyclism and Organicism in the Analytical Approaches to Schumann's Music", in G. Sakallieros, I. Foulias (eds.), Proceedings of the Conference Three Epochs - Four Anniversaries: Pergolesi, Chopin, Schumann, Barber (Athens: Department of Music Studies, 2011), 203-214 [In Greek]
"Teaching Modernism in Greece: Techniques and Ideas Crossing the Compositional and Educational Work of Papaioannou since 1950", in E. Nika-Sampson, G. Sakallieros, M. Alexandru, G. Kitsios, E. Giannopoulos (eds.), Proceedings of the International Musicological Conference Crossroads: Greece as an Intercultural Pole of Musical Thought and Creativity (Thessaloniki: School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – International Musicological Society, 2013), 133-145.
"Do it Yourself? Historiography Issues of Greek Music", Musicology 21 (2013). [In Greek]
“Hadjileontiadis, Leontios”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Lapidakis, Michalis”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Papadatos, Iosif”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Papaioannou, Y. A.”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Samarás, Christos”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Tsiligiridis, Savvas”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Greek antiquity and different strands of 20th-century Greek music”, in Katerina Levidou, Katy Romanou and George Vlastos (eds.), Musical Receptions of Greek Antiquity: From the Romantic Era to Modernism (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), 68-112.
“The soundtracks of Ancient Hellas in Greece of the 1960s: Different meanings and visions”, in Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, Vesna Mikić, Tijana Popović Mladjenović, Ivana Perković (eds.), MUSIC/IMAGE: Transpositions, translations, transformations... (Belgrade: Department of Musicology Faculty of Music, University of Arts, 2018), 178-186.
“Greece, V: In a Modern State, 3. The 20th century (post-1950), i. Art music, b. Composers”, Grove Music Online (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).
“Introduction to Music Theory”, in Evi Nika-Sampson (ed.), Introduction to Musicology (Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2019), 141-169. [In Greek]
"Greece/Entechno", in David Horn, John Shepherd (eds.), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 11 Genres: Europe (London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019).
“Performing (ancient) Greek modernism: Modernist music and the staging of ancient drama”, in Roderick Beaton, Katerina Levidou, Polina Tambakaki and Panos Vlagopoulos (eds.), Language and Identity in Greece: Defining a National Art Music in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York, London: Routledge, 2019), 274-291.
[with George Sakallieros] «Musical modernism in Greece: An overview», in Eva Mantzourani, Costas Tsougras and Petros Vouvaris (eds.), Perspectives on Greek Musical Modernism (New York and London: Routledge, 2025), 38-70.
«Struggling for the 'new' in the 1950s: Twelve-note/Tonal interactions in Symphony No. 3 and Concerto for Orchestra by Yannis A. Papaioannou», in Eva Mantzourani, Costas Tsougras and Petros Vouvaris (eds.), Perspectives on Greek Musical Modernism (New York and London: Routledge, 2025), 145-161.

ARTISTIC WORK (SELECTION)

Recordings

The American Album, Centaur Records (Catalogue Nr.: CRC 3525), 2016 (Patricia Surman: flute, Kostas Chardas: piano).
Yorgos Sicilianos - Anniversary Edition for Ten Years After His Passing, Irida Classical (Catalogue Nr.: Irida 019), 2016.
Y. A. Papaioannou: In the Depth of the Looking Glass, Naxos (Catalogue Nr.: 8.572782), 2013.
Petros Theodorou: Musica Practica, MUSICA VIVA (Catalogue Nr.: M.V.88.091), 1995.

Recitals - Concerts

5-6-1995, "Vafopoulio" Community Centre (Thessaloniki), Myrtό Papatanasiu: soprano, Kostas Chardas: piano, Petros Theodorou "...Of the night" selection from song cycles [transcribed for voice and piano by Petros Theodorou and Kostas Chardas].
5-1996, British Music Information Centre (London), Thomas Tulacek: violin, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, "Chamber music by Antonín Tučapský".
4-11-1996, Southwark Cathedral (London), Kostas Chardas: solo piano recital.
6-2-1997, Palfy Palace (Prague), Kostas Makrygiannakis: guitar, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, works for guitar and cello and piano.
14-5-1997, Steinway Hall (London), Ilios Quintet, Brahms, Quintet in F minor Op. 34 for piano and string quartet.
23-5-1997, St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, works for cello and piano.
6-4-1998, Municipal Concert Hall of Edessa, "Musica Mediterranea" Ensemble, "Spanish Music Night in Memoriam Federiko Garcia Lorka».
15-11-1999, "Vafopoulio" Community Centre (Thessaloniki), Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, "Tribute to Nikos Skalkotas".
24-4-1999, Community Centre of Katerini, Jannis Anissegos: flute, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, works for trio (flute, cello and piano).
11-11-2000, Hall of the Municipal Conservatoire of Larissa, Myrtό Papatanasiu: soprano, Kostas Chardas: piano, Male Choir of the Musical Association of Larissa, "Tribute to Vassilis Tenidis".
21-3-2001, "Filippos Nakas" Hall (Athens), Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, "From Brahms' Romanticism to Skalkotas the 'Romantic'".
10-3-2002, Hall of the Municipal Conservatoire of Larissa, Evie Papathanassiou: soprano, Kostas Chardas: piano, World Premiere of the Sonata for cello and piano by Yorgos Sicilianos.
21 και 22-12-2002, Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, "Piandaemonium" Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
26-2-2004, Friends of Music Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, (2nd International Piano Festival), "Piandaemonium" Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
28 και 29-7-2006, Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2006, "Piandaemonium" Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
6-2-2007, "Filippos Nakas" Hall (Athens), Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, works for cello and piano "Humour and Melancholy in 20th-Century Music".
8-1-2008, Pallas Hall (Athens), "Piandaemonium" Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
14-11-2011, "Parnassos" Concert Hall (Athens), Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, "Obsessions", works for cello and piano (organized by the State Orchestra of Athens)
27-11-2012, Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, Megaron the Athens Hall, Myrtό Papatanasiu: soprano, Kostis Theos: cello, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Jannis Anissegos: flute, Kostas Chardas: piano, Trio Arundo, "Dialogues: Tribute to Y. A. Papaioannou" (co-ordinator: Kostas Chardas).
27, 29-11-2013, "Aimilios Riadis" Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, "Piandaemonium" Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
20-5-2014, Ionian Academy, Corfu, Patricia Surman: flute, Kostas Chardas: piano, “Contemporary American Music for Flute and Piano”.
16-11-2014, Opera America, New York, Myrtό Papatanasiu: soprano, Patricia Surman: flute, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, “Women's Stories: A Chamber Recital featuring Myrtò Papatanasiu”.
23-4-2015, Center for the performing Arts, Northeastern State University (Talhequah Oklahoma, Η.Π.Α.), Patricia Surman: flute, Kostas Chardas: piano, “Recital for flute and piano”.
9 και 10-12-2017, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, “Piandaemonium” Ensemble, works for 6 pianos - 12 pianists.
2-4-2018, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens, Apollon Grammatikopoulos: violin, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Tzekos: clarinet, Kostas Chardas: piano, Thanasis Kourlambas: narration. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with Texts by Ilias Venezis and the Book of Revelation.
21-2-2020, Deptford Town Hall (Goldsmiths University), London, Viktoria Zora: Violin, Kostas Chardas: Piano, “Greek classical music for violin and piano”.
5 και 6-7-2023, Ancient Theatre of Filippoi, Kavala Piandaemonium (6 pianos – 12 pianists), “Voices at the End”.
20-1-2025, Benaki Museum, Athens, Apollon Gramatikopoulos: violin, Evie Papathanassiou: cello, Kostas Chardas: piano, "Ideology and Spirituality: Mikis in Conversation with his Teacher Olivier”.
30 και 31-7-2025, Dion Hellenistic Theatre, Piandaemonium (6 pianos - 12 pianists), “Axion Esti” by Mikis Theodorakis and Odysseas Elytis (in transcription by Kostas Chardas and Nick Poulakis).