Louly Psichouli was born in Athens and started her studies in music at a very early age. She studied piano, harmony, counaterpoint and fuge at the National Conservatory of Athens in 1962 and gained a scholarship at the Paris Conservatoir (1962-1965) where she continued her studies with the professors Jacque Fevrier and Marguerite Long. She acquired her Composition Diploma from the National Conservatory of Vienna, and then her Diploma of Music Director at the Music Academy of Vienna, in 1973, as a scholar of the Austrian state with the professors Hans Swarovsky, Gustav Koslik, Franz Burkhart.

She soon started her career as a piano accompaniatrice in several Opera Houses in Austria as well as a guest conductor in many Concert Halls all over Europe.

 

She has appeared with the National Orchestra of Athens and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Greek Radio Broadcasting Corporation.

 

In 1981 she appeared for the first time at The Athens Festival conducting the Orchestra of Bolshoi Theatre.

 

As soon as she returned to Athens in 1974, as the first woman conductor in Greece, she founded the nonprofit organization, Athenaeum International Cultural Centre and the Athenaeum Conservatory, together with the piano soloist Anna Koukouraki. She has been the President and Cultural Director of both organizations up today. She succeeded in gathering the most prominent representatives of music, politics, and social life of the country, in the common quest of offering the best education in music as well as cultural development.

 

In the frame of Unesco, she founded and established the International Music Competitions, for piano, opera, oratorio and lied, which since 1977 have been dedicated to Maria Callas memory and which have gained the unique in the world title Grand Prix Maria Callas in 1994. The competition has been running for 38 years continually and more than 1850 young artists from all over the world have participated, have gained the unique prize and are having an international career in the most important concert halls of the world. More than 320 excellent artists, conductors, Directors of the biggest Theatres and Concert Halls in the world have participated in the International Juries of the Grand Prix Maria Callas.

 

In 1978 she inaugurated an annual concert dedicated to Maria Callas on the dated of her death, September 16, at the Herodus Odeum of Athens. This special concert was given for the last time in 2009, when the economic crisis put an end to such activities. It must be emphasized that in these concerts, that took place through all these years, many important Greek and foreign artists participated with great success.

 

Louly Phichouly has directed many orchestras in her career among others, the Orchestra of Balshoi Theatre of Moscow, the Philarmonic Chorus George Enesku of Bukarest, The Baroque Orchestra of Athenaeum, the Chorus of the National Philarmonic Orchestra Transilvania, the Philarmonic Chorus of Prague, the Sympohic Orchestra of The Balkan Coutries eta.

She also took a leading part in the creation of symphonic and vocal ensembles such as The Baroque Ensemble, the Laboratory of Melodrama Education, a Children chorus, a chorus of Byzantine Music and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Balkan Countries.

 

She was awarded the Maria Callas Prize by the Greek Broadcast in 1998, the Maria Callas Award in Los Angeles in 1998 and the Award Apollo by the Friends of the Greek National Opera Association.

 

The Athenaeum International Cultural Centre and the Athenaeum Conservatory, which celebrated 40 years in 2014, will always keep the soul and spirit of Louly Psichouly for the uplift of cultural and music life in Greece.