Athanasios Dritsas

Athanasios Dritsas was born in Athens. He graduated from Varvakios Model School and studied at the Medical School of the University of Athens. He specialized in Cardiology at Guy’s & Hammersmith Hospital, RPMS, London, UK. Alongside his medical studies, he studied advanced theory of music and composition with Kostas Kydoniatis and Giannis Ioannidis.

He founded and served as President of the Working Group on Quality of Life & Psychosocial Cardiology of the Hellenic Cardiological Society. He is an active member of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC).

He has been internationally recognised as a pioneer for his clinical and research activity in the use of music as a therapeutic medium (music medicine), and is a distinguished member of the International Association of Music and Medicine (IAMM). He has been internationally recognised as a “bridge” between medicine and the arts and was honoured with the Fontane Di Roma International Award (2013).

He was the producer of the historic radio program “The Magic Flute” of the Third Programme of Greek National Radio (1999–2001). He is also an internationally recognised composer and circulated six (6) personal records (CDs). His music was used by the internationally renowned Gelabert-Azzopardi Companya de Danca at the Edinburgh International Art Festival in 2004.

In 2019, he was awarded by the Academy of Athens for his scientific work on the application of music in the treatment of cardiac patients.