2011 Anniversary Brochure - Paxos Festival Trust

I met John Gough the very first year he came to Paxos in the ‘70s, as he was
renting one of my aunt’s apartments for his family.
Classical music was not a new sound to my ears, as I listened to it a lot on the radio;
especially during the night with Athina Spanoudi’s broadcasts. So, when I first heard
the rumour that a classical music festival was being organized on Paxos, I was ecstatic.
I kept going to all the early concerts and started thinking of ways to make this music
a common sound to locals’ ears. The only way was through proper classical music
education for local children.
In 1996 I was director of the Cultural Society board with Kostas Anemogiannis as
chairman. John Gough embraced our request to involve locals in the festival
activities, and stated that the future of the Festival could only be ensured if locals
could get an immediate relation with classical music, Thus a long collaboration
started between the Cultural Society and the Trust, which included many kinds of
aid from our part towards the organization of the Paxos Music Festival.
Since 1997 locals started participating in the organizing of the Festival with great
zeal; the local community embraced the Festival more every year and the “Arion”
local choir performed for the first time at Disco Aloni in Lakka. In 1998 the choir
performed again in one of the High School classrooms in Bogdanatika. In 1999 not
only the choir but also local children participated, performing in the “Carnival of
Animals” at Disco Phoenix in Gaios. It was a revelation for all of us. The children’s
touching performance proved how receptive they were to this type of musical
education.
2000 was a very important year for the Festival. John Gough had commissioned a
cantata on the history of Paxos to celebrate the new millennium. The choir, local
children, directors of the Paxos Festival Trust board (including John himself), a large
number of musicians and artists from the Greek National Opera appeared on
stage. It resulted into one of the most important moments in the history of the
Paxos Music Festival.
This was followed in 2001 with local children participating in the performance of
the Prokoviev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Mozart’s “Toy Symphony”
This is how classical music education started on Paxos. It led to the founding of the
Municipal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2002,and the local school hired its first music
teacher. The interest from the children and their parents encouraged us to
establish the Municipal Music School in Magasia in 2008.
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John was one of the first people to congratulate me on my election as the mayor
of Paxos in 2002. He hoped that with my gaining this position, he would finally
receive help from municipal authorities too and this has indeed happened.
2004 marked the beginning of a new aspect for the Paxos Festival; Spring concerts
began featuring young Greek musicians performing demanding contemporary
music under the artistic direction of the International Ensemble Modern Academy
of Frankfurt.
The talented Greek musicians participating in the Festival became ambassadors of
our island all over the world and I felt proud on many occasions..........each time a
famous musician would state he had taken part in the Paxos Music Festival, when
the Mistry Quartet toured Europe under the name Paxos Quartet, when I would
meet musicians in concerts all over Europe that had participated in the Paxos
Festival at some time, when the Athens Megaron offered its stages for the Festival’s
performances. Our emerging recognition came in May 2007 when the Paxos
Music Festival was voted fifth best classical music festival among the 10 best in the
world by Independent Newspaper readers, and again in 2009 when the Paxos
Music Festival was awarded first prize as the best peripheral music festival in
Greece by the National Organization of Theatre and Music Critics.
I still remember John’s agony for the future of the festival. I shared his anxiety as I
watched him age and become ill. 2005 was the last year of the festival, where he
was present. The Municipality of Paxos decided to honour John Gough in the last
September concert for all the 20 years of his efforts and financial contribution to
the realizing of the festival. It was a very touching and emotional evening for all of
us.
We all hoped for the festival to continue somehow; this year’s events prove it has a
glorious present. I wish wholeheartedly for its long future!
Spyros Bogdanos
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