Greek Branch of the IAML, 2nd Conference of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, Athens Conservatory, 27-28 April, 2018

Study Workshop of the Piano in Popular Music 
School of Popular and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus
Supervising Professor: Nikos Ordoulidis, Musicologist, Academic Scholar
Workshop team (students): Alexandros Ioannou, Efi Papaioannou, Georgios Moisidis, Emma Dousaki, Eleftheria Thani

Title of proposal: A Smyrnean pianist in Athens – The family archive of Mitsos Mertikas
The workshop was created and functions beyond the context of the study programme of the School of Popular and Traditional Music of the Technological Educational Institute of Epirus. Its main purpose is the study of the piano outside of the usual context, both in Greece and abroad. This specific paper concerns the projects of the Workshop during the academic year 2016-2017, when the family archive of Dimitris Mertikas was given by his daughter Zoi Mertika, in order for it to be digitalized and catalogued by the workshop team. Dimitris Mertikas came to Athens from Smyrna during the period of the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922). He worked as a pianist in Smyrna, something which he continued to do in Athens as well, playing in music establishments, theatres and orchestras and composing music of aesthetic diversity. This proposal shall present his family archive, whose material varies (handwritten music scores, commercial music scores, texts, photographs etc).

Study Workshop of the Piano in Popular Music 
Apart from the course specialty of the popular piano, in which technique and repertoire are cultivated, the Study Workshop of the Piano in Popular Music has been functioning since the academic year 2015-2016, parallel to the study programme. In the Workshop the other aspects, such as historical research and documentation, are added and integrated into the study programme. Removed from the 'stress' of standard working hours, students have the leisure to develop a more holistic examination of the material, searching for historical clues which contribute to a more proficient knowledge concerning what they engage in on the piano.