Department of Music Studies

Solon Raptakis was born in Athens in 1991. In 2012 he received his piano diploma from the Attiko Conservatory of Music with professor Dionysis Mallouchos, with a grade of "Excellent", first prize and special distinction (gold medal). In addition, he has been awarded in national music competitions (2nd prize in the First Panhellenic Arapheneio Competition, 1st prize in the First Panhellenic Competition of UNESCO). At the same time, he completed his studies of higher theory, receiving degrees in Flute (with Ioannis Christofilos), Counterpoint and Harmony, with a grade of "A". He attended the postgraduate course of studies "Music Without Borders", in the specialty "piano", participating in seminars of George Hadjinikos, Efis Agrafiotis, Maria Efstratiadis, Kostas Loukos, Myrtous Aretaiou, Youlis Ventouras, Kostas Yaxoglou etc. Furthermore, she has actively participated in master classes with Daniel Blumenthal, Dmitry Bashkirov, Evangelos Sarafianos, Lilia Boyadjieva, Natalia Michailidou and Nicholas Zumbro. She has also attended contemporary singing classes with Sofia Vossou, as well as with Mary Dalakou and Elli Artemis at the Attiko Conservatory, and jazz piano classes with Pantelis Benetatos.

In 2014 he graduated from the Department of Music Studies of the University of Athens (direction of Historical and Systematic Musicology) and in 2021 he successfully defended his PhD thesis, which was completed under the supervision of Associate Professor Ioannis Foulias and bears the title: "The piano sonata in late Romanticism (1848-1914). A systematic approach to the repertoire, with emphasis on the emergence of the particular characteristics of the genre and the evolutionary formation of morphological patterns". In addition, he also developed teaching activities in the Department of Music Studies: in the academic year 2015-2016 he took over the teaching of a course on electronic recording and processing of musical scores, while in the spring semester of the academic year 2021-2022 he taught the course "Theory and Practice of Renaissance Music (Counterpoint) II". He is a member of the Hellenic Musicological Society, in the research group "Music Theory and Analysis". His scientific articles have been published in musicological journals and he has also participated in scientific conferences.

He specializes in the interpretation of piano works of the late Romantic period and of modernity up to the present day (including in his repertoire works by A. Webern, A. Schoenberg, A. Berg, J. Adams, T. Takemitsu, S. Barber, N. Skalkotas, etc.). He has taken part many times in the artistic events of the Department of Music Studies (Music May). He has participated with an individual recital in the concert cycle "Young people for young people" of the Philip Nakas Conservatory and in the festival "Sinialo, a beacon of culture in Flisvos", while he has also presented recitals in the concert hall of the Attiko Conservatory and in the cinema "New Switzerland" under the auspices of the Municipality of Byron (2018 and 2020). He is a professor of piano and artistic director of the Athens School of Music and teaches, in addition, contemporary singing and theory. Finally, he is active as a piano chordist, having been taught by Yannis Pontikis.