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Georgios
Kasassoglou was born on December 1st 1908 in Athens. His father, Wassilis,
came from Polydorion in Asia Minor. His mother Eleni was a passionate music
lover. Georgios received his first violin lesson at the age of ten, in Edessa,
in the north of Greece.
He completed his secondary education at the age of sixteen and registered
at the University of Athens to study classical philology. He took violin
lessons with W. Skantzourakis and studied theory and composition in different
music academies simultaneously, which was possible at the time. His teachers
were: Lavrangas, Kontis, Warwoglis, Kalomiris and S. Spanoudi. After his
studies at the University of Athens and at the music academies he registered
for political science at the Pantios College.
In 1933 he became a high school teacher for music. Besides his teaching
in high schools he endeavoured, wherever he was, to encourage musical activities.
In 1934 he married the pianist and singer Flora Papachristofilou, who had
studied singing with the famous teacher Ghini and chamber music with Dimitri
Mitropoulos, who, despite his exceptional talent, was still unknown at the
time. After taking part in the Second World War on the Albanian front he
composed in 1944 his orchestral piece Four Preludes on The Return
from The Front which was often performed by the Athens State Orchestra.
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