Our History



The Philharmonic Orchestra of Mesa Yitonia was established in March 2000 by Mesa Yitonia Municipality to give a chance to young people involved in instrumental music to join a broader ensemble, develop their skills and become active in the field of music.

The result was the creation of a solid and well organized Philharmonic Orchestra giving public performances and high-level events aimed at music culturing as well as promoting Municipality and Cyprus abroad, through various cultural exchanges.

The first Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra from its foundation and up to the end of 2014 was Mr. Anastasios Arampatzis, a retired Major of the Greek Military Music.
The second Conductor from January 2015 to June 2025, was Mr Paris Xanthou, a former student of Mr. Arampatzis and member of the band from the early stages. After his graduation with a Bachelor degree in Music and Master in Conducting he became the assistant conductor and then the Conductor of the Orchestra.

In the early stages, the Orchestra consisted of young children having their love for music as their only weapon. Over the time new members joined with previous experience so the Philharmonic Orchestra is now made up of people aged 12 to 60 years old.

The repertoire of the Orchestra in the early stages was just easy formal music pieces but over the years they have reached the level to include almost all types of music, from classical to Jazz, movie themes, blues etc. organizing high-level concerts with famous Greek singers like Makedonas, Mbasis, Lekkas, Savopoulos and Ntalaras.

The orchestra has a new Conductor since July 2025, a former player in the band who became the conductor after his graduation from the Royal Holloway University of London as a composer, pianist and music teacher.

In 2017, the M.Y. Band Club was created to give a legal entity to the Philharmonic Orchestra so that it could be funded by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education of Cyprus. When in 2024 the Municipality of Mesa Yitonia was closed and merged with the Municipality of Limassol as part of the Municipal reform in Cyprus, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mesa Yitonia was adopted by the M.Y. Band Club so that the 25-year history of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Mesa Yitonia would remain alive through the activities of the M.Y. Band Club.

Conductor Profile:

Kyriakos Costa was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, in 1998. He is a graduate of Royal Holloway, University of London, where he specialized in music composition. He works professionally in orchestral and theatre music, while also being active as a session pianist and singer-songwriter.

In 2020, he was selected as one of the Young Generation Composers of the CoMA Festival in London, where he participated with his orchestral piece clockwise.
In 2021, he was invited as a composer for the 5th Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence Scheme at Royal Holloway, composing music for the gallery’s online exhibition and virtual tour. That same year, his piece for solo flute, vouvós, won first prize in London’s Ensemble Matters Composition Competition.

In September 2023, he founded the Children’s Theatre Stage: "AEROSTATO", which premiered its first play The Storytelling Shoes at the 1st CARE Festival, part of the LARNAKA 2030 – European Candidate City initiative.

Over the past three years, he has been releasing original songs via his personal YouTube channel, produced by singer-songwriter and producer Constantinos Lemesios (Lemesios). .