Dr. George Blytas

George Blytas, founder and director of the Houston Sinfonietta, was born in Cairo, Egypt, where he studied piano with Ignaz Tiegerman and Joseph Schulz and harmony and composition with Pompeo Minato. In 1951 he obtained his music diploma in Harmony/Theory and in 1952 his diploma in Piano Education from the National Conservatory in Athens.

With plans for a musical career, and with the help of several established European professors of music in Cairo, George Blytas initiated the foundation of a branch of the National Conservatory of Greece in Cairo in October 1951. At the same time Blytas established a student - teacher orchestra in which conservatory teachers and their students participated. But political unrest in the Middle East was already very much on the increase. On January 26, 1952, mobs burned many European establishments in cosmopolitan Cairo. Even the Cairo Opera House, which had been built for the Premiere of Verdi's Aida, was burned. A mass exodus of European professionals followed, including several of the members of the Conservatory Orchestra. Undaunted by political events, Manolis Kalomiris came to Cairo in May of 1952, and officially established the Conservatory appointing George Blytas as Secretary of the new school. Dimitri Saridakis was appointed director of the Conservatory, which continued its operation until 1962.

In view of the rapidly deteriorating political situation, George Blytas enrolled at the American University in Cairo, while maintaining his association with the Conservatory as Secretary and teacher of theory and classical guitar. In 1956 he came to the USA as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1961. In the same year, Blytas joined a major industrial research laboratory and after a 38 -year career, 95 patents, several compositions, and many Sinfonietta concerts, he retired as a research consultant in 1999.

George Blytas has written many compositions, most notably an oratorio based on the Greek poem by Odysseas Elytis, Nobel Laureate, entitled Elegiac and Funeral Song for a Second Lieutenant Lost in the Albanian Campaign.

George Blytas married Cora Ann Severson in 1963, and has two children: Constantine (Taki), an accomplished cellist, long-time member of the Sinfonietta and IT expert, and Christina (Tina) who has played the violin with the Sinfonietta for several seasons but has since obtained an MFA degree and lives in Dallas. Tina is who created the Sinfonietta logo that graces our programs & website.