Sophocles Papas
Sophocles Papas (1893 or 1894 – 26 February 1986) was a Greek classical guitar pedagogue and music publisher. Early life Papas was born in Sopik, Ottoman Empire. He was exposed to classical music at an early age by his father, who was a church chanter, a voice teacher, and a casual player of the violin. When Papas was a young teenager, he went to live with an uncle in Cairo. He attended school and studied piano. He also began to study both the mandolin and the guitar. Career Papas returned to Greece in 1912, where he fought as an Albanian guerrilla against the Turks in the Balkan Wars. Later, he joined the Hellenic Army and fought in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1914, Papas moved to the United States and began teaching classical guitar in Washington, D.C. He also taught at American University. The lack of published guitar music led Papas to found the Columbia Music Company. The company still publishes many arrangements and original compositions for the guitar, including a number by Papas's friend Andrés Segovia. Perhaps best known is Papas's Method for the Classic Guitar (494-00194 / CO 300), and his revised edition of Fernando Sor's Sixty Short Pieces