Philharmonic Society of Corfu

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The Philharmonic Society of Corfu (Philarmoniki Etaireia Kerkyras, Φιλαρμονική Εταιρεία Κερκύρας) is today a community band in Corfu, Greece. However, when it was founded in 1840, its initial scope was to become the first Greek music academy organised on European prototypes. Its first Artistic Director was Nikolaos Halikiopulos Mantzaros, who retained honorably this office until his death in 1872. The Phiharmonic (PSC) had a fully organised programme of tuition both in music theory and practice. Its students, that for the first time in modern Hellenic history could learn music regardless of their social class, had the opportunity to be taught by professional musicians and teachers basic music theory, harmony, counterpoint, instrumentation, composition, as well as piano, vocal music, string and wind instruments. The tuition of the latter category found its artistic expression through the wind band of the philharmonic, an ensemble, which became very popular by developing into an integral part of public and religious festivities. Nonetheless, the popularity of the band (which was the fourth civilian band of the Ionian Islands after those of Zante (1816), Argostoli (1836) and Lixouri (1838) in Kefalonia) was so strong, that in the end in the public opinion of Corfu 'band' became synonymous to the 'philharmonic'. This misunderstanding, however, became gradually a reality, especially after the Second World War, mainly because of the financial problems that a non-governmental institution like PSC came across and the shortage of professional teachers. However, PSC still acts, up to a certain point, as a pivot to those young people that would like to have their first experiences into music. In 1979 Maria Desylla-Kapodistria, former mayor of Corfu and the first female mayor in Greece, bequeathed the Kapodistrias summer home under contract No. 4541/3.11.1979 to the Reading Society of Corfu, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu and the Society of Corfiote Studies for the purpose of converting it to a museum dedicated to the memory of Ioannis Kapodistrias. The Kapodistrias Museum, under the stewardship of the three societies, was formally inaugurated in 1981.