Levidis, Dimitri
Levidis, Dimitri
Levidis, Dimitri, Greek-born French composer and teacher; b. Athens, April 8, 1885?; d. Palaeon Phaleron, near Athens, May 29, 1951. He studied at the Lottner Cons, in Athens, then with Boemer, Choisy, Lavrangas, and Mancini at the Athens Cons. (1898–1905). He subsequently studied with Dénéreaz at the Lausanne Cons. (1906–07) and with Klose (fugue), Mottl (orchestration), and Strauss (composition) at the Munich Academy of Music (1907–08). He went to France (1910). He served in the French Army during World War I, and became a naturalized French citizen in 1929. He returned to Greece about 1932, and was active as a teacher; in 1934 he founded the Phaleron Cons., which became a part of the Hellenic Cons. He was the first to write works for the Martenot Ondes Musicales, including Poème symphonique pour solo d’Ondes Musicales et Orchestre (Paris, Dec. 23, 1928) and De profundis for Voice and 2 Soloists of Ondes Musicales (Paris, Jan. 5, 1930). Other works included a ballet, Le Pâtre et la nymphe (Paris, April 24, 1924), Divertissement for English Horn, Harps, Strings, Celesta, and Percussion (Paris, April 9, 1927), an oratorio, The Iliad, Poem for Violin and Orch. (1927), Chant payen for Oboe and Strings, compositions for the “Dixtuor aeolien d’orchestre,” pieces for chamber ensembles, song cycles, and piano pieces.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire