Yiannis Papaioannou was a Greek composer and teacher of the Modern Era.
Education
He studied piano with Marika Laspopoulou and composition with Alekos Kontis at the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens (1922-1934), as well as the piano and orchestration with Emilios Riadis in Thessaloniki (1928-1929). In particular, in Paris he attended Arthur Honegger"s class.
Career
In 1949, he visited the major European music centres on a UNESCOgrant and he became familiar with new compositional developments. Between 1951 and 1961 he taught music at an Athens high-School and from 1953 he was professor of counterpoint and composition at the Hellenic Conservatory. He was the first president of both the Greek section of the ISCM (1964-1975) and the Hellenic Association for Contemporary Music (1965-1975).
Papaioannou was the first musician to systematically teach atonal, 12-note and serial techniques before 1970.
His students include Michalis Adamis, Theodore Antoniou, Georges Aperghis, Argyris Kounadis and Dimitri Terzakis.
Views
His compositional career falls into five main phases: Early Impressionist (1932-1938), National School (1939-1943), Hindemithian neo-classicism combined with elements from Byzantine music (1944–1952), 12-note period (1953–1966) and the last period (1966–1989) in which he developed an entirely personal technique.