His origin is from Mykonos and Naxos. In pre-school age, he started learning Byzantine music at Agios Nikolaos Acharnon with the cantor Professor Th. Theodorakopoulos. At the Hellenic Conservatory he studied guitar with professors Charalambos Ekmectsoglou and Costas Triandos and theory with Antiochos Evaggelatos. He continued at the National Conservatory of Athens with harmony, advanced theory and piano under the teaching of Patrikidis and Vokos. A decisive role in the development of his musical studies was played by the composer Nikos Mamagakis who taught him orchestration and rhythm. Alongside his musical studies, he studied at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens.
In 1975, with a Willy Brand scholarship (for his work “Ten Byzantine Essays” small symphonic ensemble and mixed choir), he studied composition, orchestration and opera at the Munich Academy of Arts, from which he graduated with honors.
He worked for ERT writing music for plays for radio and television. His recording activity began at the age of fifteen with “Soson kyrie ton Laon sou”(Lord save your people), from LYRA by A. Patsifas. He started the live performances, with Dionysis Savvopoulos, then with Thanasis Gaiphyllias and Nikolas Asimos.
To date, more than a hundred of his works have been published. He is one of the few Greek composers of orchestral music whose works have been released all over the world. Specifically, “Wherever I Travel Greece Hurts Me” (1980) by SONET MUSIC and CBS, “Atreides” (1978) by Deutsche Grammophon in the Anglo-Saxon countries. His CDs are released worldwide by VENOL.
He wrote music for the TV series: Great Upheaval, Notary Public, Argo, For Honor and Money, Laureotis, Starlight, Our Lady, Razor’s Edge and his own TV programs. He also wrote music for ballet, collaborating with G. Metsis, Lia Meletopoulou, the Experimental Ballet of Piraeus and with the choreographers: Yannis Fleuri, Vangelis Seilinos, Leonida Depian, Haris Mantafounis, Angelos Hatzis, Konstantinos Psarelis, Eliza Pallis, A. Georgiou , Dimitris Papazoglou, Foka Evangelino.
He collaborated with the troupes: Dimitris Potamitis at the “Research Theatre”, Tzeni Karezis – Costa Kazakou, Manos Katrakis, Costas Voutsas, Thanasis Veggou, Evgenios Spatharis, with the “Experimental Theatre” of D. Trivizas, with the State Theater of Northern Greece, the “Modern Times” theater, “Thiaso 81”, “Theatre of the Day, “Theatrio Sanidi”, with the “National Opera”, with the “Peloponnesian and Dodecanese Theater”, in “DIPETHE” of Veria, Lamia, Ioannina, Kozani, “National Theater” etc.
He wrote music for more than a hundred plays, ancient Greek and modern. Among them are works by: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander, Terentius, William Shakespeare, Moliere, Lope de Vega, Federico Garcia Lorca, Tennessee Williams, Bertolt Brecht, Giorgos Sourtis, Babis Tsikliropoulos, M. Efthimiadis, Giorgos Dialegmenou, Bost, K.X. Myri, Yiannis Xanthoulis, Stamatis Fassoulis, K. Dimas, A. Thomopoulos, Alekou Sakellariou.
He composed music for numerous motion pictures. His works were presented at the 1996 Nobel Prize ceremony.
He taught music, with an emphasis on the liberation of expressive means and the philosophy of sounds and music, in the higher drama schools of the Municipality of Agia Varvara, in ‘modern times’ as well as in ‘IASMO’.
He is a member of the “Society of Greek Playwrights”, EMSE (Union of Composers and Lyricists of Greece) and SEH (Society of Greek Actors).
In 2002 he received the D. SHARP Award for the 500,000 sales that surpassed the total of his works worldwide.[4]
In 2014-15 he taught at the Drama School of the National Theatre. In 2016 he was appointed full professor at the Academy of Munich. He has toured in Greece and abroad in concerts and theater performances.
He starred in the ancient theater of Epidaurus as well as in other ancient theaters of Greece with the plays “Horsemen” – “Frogs” – “Churchmen” by Aristophanes
(source: Wikipedia)
