Born in Athens in 1942. He studied music (piano and theory) at the Conservatory of Athens (1953-1965) with professors S. Farantatos, D. Maris & M. Chairogiorgou. From 1959 to 1968 he participated as pianist in several concerts and recordings of M. Hadjidakis. During this period he wrote several songs and started writing music for the theatre (Donna Diana, National Theatre) and cinema (The girl and the satyrs, of D. Grigoratou). At the same time he studied mathematics at the University of Athens and attended composition classes with C. A. Papaioannou. In 1967 he composed his first “serious” work “Antiphonies” ranked number one of the list. The same year he worked for six months as an assistant to John Christou, who revealed him another way of thinking.
Between 1968-1972 he studied with a scholarship from the French government, the Conservatoire of Paris with Olivier Messiaen. From 1971 he worked as an assistant professor at the Conservatoire in the popularisation of contemporary music. From 1972 to 1976 he worked as animateur musical in the cultural centre of “Criteil”. The most important works of this period is The Greek song (1970), Affrontement (1972) Abstr’acte (1974) and especially musical theatre projects like Hermes and Prometheus (1972), Les enfants du sable (1973), Dieu le veut (1975), Griselidis (1977), which repeatedly occurred in Paris and other French cities.
In 1977, while his career abroad was at a very high point, he returned to Greece. He continued his compositional activity in two main areas: 1) the music room, with special emphasis on projects for voice and 2) the music for theatre. At the same time he worked in various positions of responsibility: deputy director of the Third Program of the Greek Radio (1977-1981), Chairman of the Board of the National Opera (1981-1984, 1994), director of the musical sector of the Municipal Cultural Development Company Kalamata (1985-90). He is a member of the Company’s Board of Music of Ancient Greek Drama. Since 1995 has assumed the artistic director of the Orchestra of Colours. As a pianist, works almost exclusively with the baritone Spyros Sakkas with many appearances in Greece and abroad.
His works often played in Greece and abroad and many of them have been written after ordering various actors: Festival de Royan (Affrontement, 1972), ALEA III (Impromptu, in memory of G.. Christos), A ‘Program of Greek Radio (Sonata in B minor, 1990) Association of the Friends of Music (Pylades, 1991) OMMA (to cravings the furnace, 1994) OMMA and Opera Hamburg (Odyssey, 1996). In 1984 he was awarded the prize “Nikos Kazantzakis” of Heraklion Municipality for general music offering. In 1996 his symphonic Odyssey ballet, staged in the Concert Hall in co-production with the Opera of Hamburg was awarded the international Price Benois de la Danse.
Explore Hellas 