Founders

She was the daughter of Aggelos Hal(i)kiopoulos and the mother of Markos, Angelos and Georgios Kalkanis from her first marriage with Filippos Kalkanis.

In 1831, widowed with 6 children (3 sons and 3 daughters) Lady Dorina married Sir Petros D. Petritsopoulos, President of the Senate of the Ionios Politeia (United States of the Ionian Islands). A woman with a profound love for music and a woman of progress, Lady Dorina was the first Lefkadian woman, who – according to her grandson, the lawyer Theodosis Kalkanis- used to promenade through the town and frequent the central square unescorted. She passed away in 1865.

Lady Dorina managed to persuade as many people as possible to enroll in the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada by talking about it and its progress at every opportunity she got.

Rentier, son of Georgios Stefanitsis, (origin either from Preveza or Kefalonia) and of Porfyro Spirou Arnopoulou. He was born in 1810 and passed away in 1869. He married Ekaterini Dimitriou Athanasiou Mostra and they had five children. One of their children was Harikleia Stefanitsi, the wife of Ioannis S. Sikelianos and the mother of the poet Aggelos Sikelianos. He was also the first cousin of the heroic doctor Petros Dimitriou Stefanitsis.

He was the President of the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada during its founding.

Konstantinos Alvanitis was born in 1815. He was a notable person of his time and obstetrician by profession.

In 1866, along with his colleagues Markos Kalkanis, Antonios Servos and Zafeirios Servos wrote a letter to the Town council of Lefkada in which he expressed his wish to work pro bono for the Municipal Hospital of Lefkada.

According to the interesting study of Panos Kouniakis, “I Synchroni Lefkas” Alvanitis’s wife was a descendant of the Psomas family. He also mentions that Alvanitis was a skillful doctor and he stresses that he became a top scientist who offered a lot to the island.

Apart from his science, Konstantinos Alvanitis was also engaged in politics. In 1850, during his mayoralty, he became one of the founding fathers of the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada.

He wrote a lot of medical articles which were published in magazines of his time. He passed away in 1909.

He is said to have been the doctor and a good friend of Aristotelis Valaoritis. His son was Dr. Aristomenis Alvanitis.

He was the son of Lady Dorina (Chrysoula) Kalkani– Petritsopoulou and Filippos Kalkanis and the brother of the parliamentarians Markos and Angelos Kalkanis. He was a rentier and he was mayor of Lefkada (from 1871 to 1874 and from 1883 to 1887). He passed away in 1902.

He was also the president of the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada from 1853 to 1858 and from 1892 to 1895. In July 1883, the Bandmaster (1850-1856) of the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada, Count Antonios Kapnisis, 29 years after he had left Lefkada and while residing in Zakynthos, sent him a handwritten piece in polonaise rhythm with the dedication: “The Triumph”, an original hymn for piano. Composed by the Music Master Antonios Kapnisis, dedicated to the respectable Mayor of Lefkada, Georgios Kalkanis, for his election on July 3^rd 1883,  with infinite respect, Zakynthos, July 3^rd 1883“ Georgios Kalkanis was one of the notable members of the shipowners whο flourished in Lefkada particularly during the period 1848-1868. He and his brother Markos owned merchant ships that transported cereal. Since it had become difficult to keep pace with the continuous development in marine shipping and commerce in the mid 1860s, he decided to invest in land and real estate. In 1867 Georgios Kalkanis along with other distinguished members of the Lefkadian society took part in the first attempt to form a cooperative in Lefkada taking aim at the exploitation of the salt pans of the island. He was the father of Akrivi Tsarlamba and the grandfather of the politician Markos Tsarlambas.

Aristotelis Valaoritis was born in Lefkada in 1824. He was the son of the entrepreneur and senator Ioannis Valaoritis and Anastasia Typaldou Foresti. He received his first education at the Lyceum of Lefkada (1830-1837), afterwards he studied at the Ionian Academy in Corfu (1838-1841) and then he travelled in Italy and the liberated Greece (1841-1842). He continued with his studies in Geneva (where he obtained his college degree in Art and Science), in Paris (where he studied law) and finally in Piza, where he obtained his Doctor of Law degree. In 1846 he fell sick with typhoid fever and returned to Lefkada.

He travelled in Italy and Austria, where, in peril of his own life, he participated in the struggle for the liberation of Greece. At the same time he studied German Philosophy and in 1847 he had already had his first poem collection Stixourgimata printed in Corfu.

He travelled in Italy, mostly Venice. There he took part in student movements where he met the daughter of Emilios Typaldos, Eloisia, whom he married in 1852. They had three daughters (Maria, who died in 1855, a second daughter who was also named Maria and passed away in 1866 and Natalia who died in Venice in 1875) as well as two sons, Nano and Emilio. After his marriage he travelled in Europe for a year and when he returned to Lefkada, he supported the revolutionary movement of Epirus with men and money. This caused the displeasure of the English Lord High Commissioner and Aristotelis Valaoritis was forced to leave for Italy again. His parents passed away in 1856.

In 1857 he published his second poem collection Mnemosyna and was awarded the Gold Cross of the order of the Redeemer. In the same year his first son, Emilio, was born and he was elected Member of the Parliament for Lefkada in the Ionian Parliament until 1864.

In 1864 he visited Athens along with the President of the Ionian Parliament and other distinguished politicians and he wrote the draft bill for the unification of the Ionian Islands with Greece. His speech at the National Assembly was crowned with success. He was elected twice as a parliamentarian under the Koumoundourou’s Government (1865 and 1868) however he refused to become minister.

After the elections of 1868, discontented with politics, he withdrew to Madouri, a small island near Lefkada. There, he wrote the poems Diakos and Astrapogiannos, works which he had both printed in 1867. At the invitation of the Dean of the University of Athens in 1871 he wrote and recited with great success a poem about the Patriarch at the unveiling of the Patriarch’s statue.

Valaoritis passed away in 1879. A while before his death he wrote the first three chants (asmata) of Photeinos, a work left unfinished due to his death. Photeinos is included in the second volume of his works which were published posthumously in 1891.

The work of Valaoritis combines both the style of the Heptanese School of literature with that of the First Athenian School. His poems are written in the demotic language, whereas his prose in katharevousa. The epic character of his works, as well as his struggle for his homeland, made him a celebrated national poet while he was alive. The critical perception of his work differs widely and ranges from the full recognition (by Palamas, Roidis, Sikelianos) to the full rejection of his work (by Polylas, Panas, Vernardakis)

His full name was probably Efstathios Athanasios Pilikas, son of Ioannis. He was a municipal chief policeman and passed away in 1886.

Konstantinos Filippas was a chief policeman and is mentioned as the joint property manager of the Municipality of Lefkada. He passed away at the age of 82 in 1903.

He is mentioned as a rentier and judge of the Court of First Instance. He was the son of the senator Markos Sourbis and grandson of the nobleman officialis municipalis Emmanuel.

He was the owner of the building situated on the southeast of the Central Square, opposite the Church of Agios Spiridonas that used to house the F.E.L. for several years.

In his book about the F.E.L. history Antonakis Filippas mentions that in 1866 Sourbis financial situation was very poor and that the Philharmonic Society of Lefkada could not afford to pay him the rent due to the severe financial problems they were facing as well.