Mikis Theodorakis was born on July 29th, 1925 on the Greek island of Khios. Fascinated by music already as a child, he taught himself to write his first songs without access to musical instruments. After having been a partisan and awfully tortured during World War II and the Greek Civil War, he studied at the Athens' Conservatory, where his teacher was the director of the conservatory Philoktitis Economidis, and the Conservatoire of Paris; where his teachers were Olivier Messiaen and Eugene Bigot.

His first symphonic works Concerto for Piano, First Suite, First Symphony, were internationally acclaimed. In 1957 he won the Gold Medal in the Moscow Music Festival, in 1959, Darius Milhaud proposed him for the American Copley-Music Prize as the Best European Composer of the Year after the performances of his ballet 'Antigone' at Covent Garden.

He moved to Greece, went back to the roots, the genuine Greek music, and with his song cycle "Epitaphios", he started a cultural revolution in his country. With his marvelous works based on the greatest Greek and world poetry: "Epiphania", "Little Kyklades", "Axion Esti", "Mauthausen", "Romiossini" he has given its dignity to Greek music and, while developing his concept of metasymphonic music, he had soon become an internationally renowned musical genius.

The fascist Junta (1967-1974) published Army decree No.13, which banned playing and even listening his music. Theodorakis himself was arrested, jailed, banished to Zatouna with his wife Myrto and their two children Margarita and Yorgos. Later he was thrown to the concentration camp of Oropos and exiled in 1970. In exile, he gave some thousand concerts as part of his struggle against dictatorship.

Mikis Theodorakis has composed more than 1000 songs, five symphonies, the ballets: 'Greek Carnival', 'Elektra', 'Zorba', oratorios like: 'The March of the Spirit' and 'Canto General' four operas: 'Kostas Karyotakis', 'Medea', 'Elektra' and now 'Antigone', but also the Olympic anthem 'Canto Olympico', and the film scores for 'Phaedra', 'Z', 'Elektra', 'Zorba the Greek'; 'Serpico', 'Iphigenia'.

Several times he was member of the Greek Parliament and for two years, from 1990 to1992, he was a minister. After that, he was appointed for another two years General Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Hellenic Radio and Television.

Mikis Theodorakis always combined an exceptional artistic talent with an extraordinary deep love of his country, and he is dedicated to heightening international awareness of human rights, of environmental issues and of peace. Therefore he initiated the Greek-Turkish Friendship Society together with the renowned Turkish musician and singer Zülfü Livaneli.

In 1969-70, Dmitri Shostakovitch and Hanns Eisler initiated an international artistic committee for the liberation of Theodorakis and Leonard Bernstein founded also a committee in the USA (with Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Harry Belafonte).

Mikis Theodorakis is undoubtedly Greece's greatest living composer.

Source: Guy Wagner, for the website: http://www.classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=theodora