The Athens Conservatoire Research and Documentation Centre (ACRDC) was established in 2016 to meet the needs of Research, initially based on the valuable Archive and Library of the Conservatoire, with the aim of exploring and highlighting our musical and theatrical heritage and history. 

The establishment of the ACRDC, as well as the establishment of an organised Archive and Library at the Athens Conservatoire, is credited to the composer, researcher, musicologist, and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University, Haris Xanthoudakis (1950-2023). In 2013, as member of the Board of Directors of the Music and Drama Association, and as Director of Ionian University’s Hellenic Music Research Lab, Xanthoudakis proposed  that the Ionian University’s Hellenic Music Research Lab undertake the organization, classification and digitization of the Athens Conservatoire’s unclassified archival material. The project was headed by Haris Xanthoudakis and his associate Stella Kourmpana, a Ph.D. candidate in Historical Musicology at the Ionian University at the time. 

From 2013 to 2023, Haris Xanthoudakis and Stella Kourmpana, with the invaluable help of volunteers – most notably Ioanna Kourmpana (1947-2024) –  assembled the Historical Archive of the Athens Conservatoire, which was further enriched with donations of other important archives and collections.