Music School of Rhodes (Greece)

During the school's first year of operation, the school had problems regarding the housing of students. For the first few days of operation, the housing for the school was situated in Rodini park. However it was later transferred to the 6th Lykeio of Rhodes (also known as Ikokiriki). Conflict between the Music School of Rhodes and the admission of the 6th school of Rhodes caused the Music school to transfer to an area called 'Therme'.

After the problems with the housing and conflict with the 6th school of Rhodes, the music school was eventually moving slowly back on track. During the second year of operation, the school building was divided into 3 sections for smoother running of teaching. In this case, there are 2 sections of the building that was provided to the first year pupils and the last section was allocated to the use of second years, since there were 46 1st year pupils and 25 2nd year pupils at the time. However, the housing problem was still one of the major issues to the school, owing to several numbers of insufficient classrooms, the teachers have spent most of their time teaching at the kitchen or in the yard if the condition allowed. In addition to the smooth running, more teachers have joined the School: M.Pavlidou, M.Sotiraki (Philologist/Literature Teacher), H.Xatzinikolaou (Physicist), G.Stintixaki (German Language), E.Volonaki (Piano), A.Santoriniou (Piano), E.Ioannidou, P.Kouvaras, G.Kotis, S.Xatzinikolaou, Xatzipapas (Theatre), T.Athanasopoulos (Art).

As the time moved onto the third year of operation, the school has found the way to temporarily solve its housing problem. As a result, the location of the school was transferred from 'Therme' to “Gold Court” at Afantou area. As the school was into a more stable situation and the buildings was in good condition, the 4 sections of the building were allocated as 1 section for the 1st years, 2 sections for 2nd years (as there are more pupils) and finally 1 section for the 3rd years. As a success achievement of the year, the school won the 2nd award at the 1st PanHellenic music competition for their Byzantine Choir and 1st place in both piano and European Choir.

The music school, along with the Department of the Dodecanese of the South Aegean Region and the Municipal Culture Sports Organisation of the Municipality of Rhodes (DOPAR), is set to be hosting a festival showcasing the Creation of Contemporary Music. The main purpose of the event is to allow young musicians to express themselves and show their talents by providing them with the best possible opportunity for expression. All that is required to allow students to perform at the festival is that they have passed the music audition before the festival begins. This festival is the 3rd of its kind following the success of the 2nd festival which was organised by the Region of Southern Aegean, Department of Culture, and took place in 2011.

The 2nd Festival of Contemporary Music Creation lasted 2 days and consisted of 25 bands, consisting of the Dodecanese, performing over the 2 days. The 1st festival, lasting only 1 day, brought 1000 spectators and the 2nd festival brought more than 1500 spectators over the 2 days it ran for. The reason as to why the music school itself was chosen to hold all 3 of the festivals is due to the fact that its location combines historical monuments and natural beauty providing the perfect backdrop to the festivals.[3][4]

The 3rd festival of the Creation of Contemporary Music is divided into 3 phases. The 1st phase involves the students, who wish for their bands to participate, submitting applications for performing in the festival. The 2nd phase is where the bands are invited to the hearing in the Music School's auditorium where they perform in front of The Arts Committee of the festival. The committee then evaluate each band determining whether or not they reach the artistic criteria required to move on to the 3rd phase. The 3rd phase involves all of the groups who the Arts Committee determined suitable being given their performance slots. The Arts Committee use the 3 phases to achieve their goal in ensuring the hard working bands are able to go on to perform at the festival and showcase their talents.[5]

For the last three years, the Music School organizes the music festival "Rhodes: Crossroads of Cultures and Partnerships of Music Schools", with the participation of many different musical ensembles from various music schools.

You can see on our webpage https://MusicSchoolRhodes.gr/ and specifically in the link https://gym-mous-rodou.dod.sch.gr/category/festival/rodos-stavrodromi-politismon-mous-sxoleion/