Konstantinos Fotopoulos was born in Athens in 1982. He is a graduate of the Department of Philology of the National University of Athens and holds a Master’s degree in Byzantine Musicology from the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University (Corfu). At the same time, he studied classical and traditional violin for fifteen years with masters Stelios Kalaitzakis and Yiannis Zeugolis . In addition, he studied Theory of European Music and holds a Degree in Harmony.
He was involved in church music from an early age, having as his first teacher his father , Fr. Ioannis. In 1999, he took part in the Panhellenic Student Artistic Competitions of the Ministry of Education and Religion where he was distinguished by receiving the “1st Prize” in church music. Under the teacher Fr. Anastasios Traiforos , he obtained the “Bachelor of Byzantine Music” in 2000 and the “Diploma of Byzantine Music” in 2001 with a grade of “Excellent”. His apprenticeship for three years with the former Archon Lampadarios of the Great Church. Emmanuelides Vasilios and his association with teachers of cantors such as Archontes Dimitrios Sourlatzis and Dimitrios Ioannidis contributed to his church music education.
Konstantinos Fotopoulos has been the second cantor of the Church of St Aikaterina in Plaka and 1st cantor in the Churches of St Apostles of Agia Paraskevi (chapel), Holy Protection of the Mother of God in Moscow, Prophet Ilias at Porto Raftis and St. Cosmas the Aetolian in Amarousion where he serves until today.
His involvement in teaching began in 2000 with teaching of church music and traditional violin at the “School of Byzantine and Traditional Music” of the church of St. Paraskevi, of the municipality of Ag. Paraskevi in Attica for four years.
In the years 2004-2007 he lived in Moscow where he directed the newly established church music school of the “Holy Mount” publications and the Byzantine ensemble “Psaltika”, which today are an official branch of the Scholeion Psaltikisunder the name “Moscow Scholeion Psaltikis”. There he systematically dealt with transcriptions of classical lessons in the Slavonic language but also with music in general.
In 2008, with his fellow Konstantinos Bousdekis , he founded the Scholeion Psaltikis where he now teaches exclusively. He is also systematically involved in music composition and is the head of the School’s Palaeography research group.
He is the founder and choirmaster (together with Konstantinos Bousdekis ) of the choir ” En Psalterio” (2007) and a member of the historical choir of the Athens Musical Association of Lovers of Music of Constantinople “En Athens Association of Musicophiles of Constantinople”, with the leadership of Archon Domestikos of the Great Church, Demosthenes Paikopoulos . In addition, he is the choirmaster of the Student Choir of the Scholeion Psaltikis in Athens and of the corresponding one in Moscow, while he often appears as a soloist at church music events and concerts.
He has taught church music in “master classes” organized by the “Academy of Orthodox Church Music”, in 2013 and 2014 in Saint Petersburg, Russia and once in the famous “Tchaikovsky Conservatory” in Moscow, in the year 2016.
In 2014 he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the two-day Musicological Conference organized by the Scholeion Psaltikis at the Athens Concert Hall, while he is also active in the scientific field with relevant talks, articles and presentations at conferences.
Finally, during the years 2014 – 2020 he was a music producer of the Radio Station of the Piraeus Church, presenting the show “Psaltic Tours”.