Katherina Polyzoides-Sourvali

was born in Thessaloniki. She studied piano with Vasso Devetzi, Kiki Manou-Stavrou, Athanasios Kontos and chamber music with Alexandros Kazantzis and Dimitris Georgiou. Final degrees for music education and for solo piano (3rd place in the All-Greece Piano Competition). Further piano studies with Margarete Gelbard and Tonis Georgiou as well as at the University of Music in Vienna (degree 1959), piano with Dr. Josef Dichler, chamber music with Walter Panhofer and cembalo with Eta Harich-Schneider and Vera Schwarz. In 1963 she began teaching piano at the University of Music Graz, a position she held until 1990. In 2000 she published her master’s thesis “Once upon a time. On the importance of folk songs and dances in the community life of the Greeks - yesterday and today”. Furthermore, in 2014 she published her doctoral thesis “Vasso Devetzi and her legacy” at the University of Art in Graz.

As a soloist and ensemble musician, mainly with her husband Christos and the Camerata Polyzoides, she has played in many European cities as well as in Brazil, China and Taiwan. Various CD-recordings containing contemporary music, recently works by Klaus Johns (Extraplatte 2006). In 1999 the mayor of the City of Graz and 2006 the City of Thessaloniki honoured her for her services to those communities.