The distinguished musicologist and Byzantinologist Markos Dragoumis, nephew of Ion and son of Philip Dragoumis, passed away yesterday morning at the age of 89.
Eleni Harou wrote about Dragoumis:
«It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of the great musicologist Markos Dragoumis, whom I had the honour of knowing personally and working with him. The deceased was a scion of the historic Dragoumi family, nephew of Ion Dragoumi and Natalia Dragoumi, wife of Pavlos Melas. On his mother's side, he was a great-grandson of Aristotle Valaoritis. He studied brilliantly in Greece and abroad, was a Byzantinologist, was involved in folk and western music and directed the Musical Folklore Archive. He taught at the College of Athens, where he became associated with the Kytherian engraver Vassilis Charos. This gave me the opportunity to contact him and send him some rough recordings of Kythera chant. As soon as he received them in his hands, he showed great interest and expressed his desire to come to Kythera. Indeed, in a short time he came down to the island, I hosted him, we talked, he made recordings and collected the data he was interested in. The fruit of his research in Kythera was a very interesting work entitled «Musical peculiarities in the services of the Holy Week in Kythera». The Kytherians will remember him with love and gratitude. A modest eupatrid became the cause of recording and preserving the musical tradition of Kythera».
Who was Markos Dragoumis
Born in 1934 in Athens. He was the son of Philip Dragoumis, a member of parliament and minister, and Elena Valaoritis. On his father's side, he descended from the old Dragoumis family and was the grandson of Prime Minister Stephanos Dragoumis and nephew of Ion Dragoumis. On his mother's side he is the grandson of Ioannis Valaoritis, governor of the National Bank and great-grandson of Aristotle Valaoritis.
Study piano, higher theoretical with the composer I. A. Papaioannou, byzantine music with I. Margaziotis and attended for two years the School of Traditional Music of Simon Karas (1958-60). After the end of his studies in Athens in 1962, he went to England on a scholarship of the British Council, where he attended postgraduate studies, courses in musicology at the University of Oxford, with Egon Wellesz as supervisor.
Returning in 1964 from England, he was appointed music teacher and head of the music department of the Gymnasium-Lyceum of the Athens College, a post from which he retired in 1988. From 1970 to 2003 he taught General History of Music at the Athens Conservatory and since 1975 he has been in charge of the Musical Folklore Archive of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies, founded by Melpo Merlier in 1930.
He has many publications of musicological content (books, albums, articles), has participated in international musicological conferences -giving lectures in Greece and abroad- and is a member of the International Musicological Society. For his contribution to the musical life of the country, he was awarded in 1991 by the Academy of Athens.
He was married and had four children, including the well-known actress Natalia Dragoumi, an actress, and Filippos Dragoumi, a city councillor of Athens and former member of the executive committee of the Ecological Greens.
The news of his death was announced by his daughter, Natalia Dragoumi via instagram.
