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The Most Famous

COMPOSERS from Greece

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This page contains a list of the greatest Greek Composers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,216 Composers, 7 of which were born in Greece. This makes Greece the birth place of the 27th most number of Composers behind Argentina and Azerbaijan.

Top 7

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Greek Composers of all time. This list of famous Greek Composers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Mikis Theodorakis

1. Mikis Theodorakis (1925 - 2021)

With an HPI of 73.97, Mikis Theodorakis is the most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 56 different languages on wikipedia.

Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis (Greek: Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης [ˈmicis θeoðoˈɾacis]; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works.He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He was a three-time BAFTA nominee, winning for Z. For the score in Serpico , he earned Grammy nominations. Furthermore, for the score to Zorba the Greek, with its 'Zorba's Dance', he was Golden Globe nominated.He composed the "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen", which has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust" and possibly his best work. Up until his death, he was viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.Politically, he was associated with the left because of his long-standing ties to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He was an MP for the KKE from 1981 to 1990. Despite this however, he ran as an independent candidate within the centre-right New Democracy party in 1989, in order for the country to emerge from the political crisis that had been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas Papandreou. He helped establish a large coalition between conservatives, socialists and leftists. In 1990 he was elected to the parliament (as in 1964 and 1981), became a government minister under Konstantinos Mitsotakis, and fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better relations between Greece and Turkey. He continued to speak out in favour of leftist causes, Greek–Turkish–Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He was a key voice against the 1967–1974 Greek junta, which imprisoned him and banned his songs.

Photo of Vangelis

2. Vangelis (1943 - 2022)

With an HPI of 72.11, Vangelis is the 2nd most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου, pronounced [eˈvaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsi.u]; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( vang-GHEL-iss; Greek: Βαγγέλης, pronounced [vaɲˈɟelis]), was a Greek keyboardist, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.Born in Agria and raised in Athens, Vangelis began his career in the 1960s as a member of the rock bands The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child; the latter's album 666 (1972) is now recognised as a progressive-psychedelic rock classic. Vangelis first settled in Paris, and gained initial recognition for his scores to the Frédéric Rossif animal documentaries L'Apocalypse des Animaux, La Fête sauvage, and Opéra sauvage. He also released his first solo albums during this time, and performed as a solo artist. In 1975, Vangelis relocated to London where he built his home recording facility named Nemo Studios and released a series of successful and influential albums for RCA Records, including: Heaven and Hell (1975), Albedo 0.39 (1976), Spiral (1977), and China (1979). From 1979 to 1986, Vangelis performed in a duo with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, releasing several albums as Jon and Vangelis. He also collaborated with Irene Papas on two albums of Greek traditional and religious songs. Vangelis reached his commercial peak in the 1980s and 1990s. His score for Chariots of Fire (1981) won him an Academy Award for Best Original Score and the film's main theme, "Chariots of Fire – Titles" went to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, while his score for 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the film's soundtrack and main theme topped the European charts selling millions of copies. His compilation albums Themes (1989), Portraits (So Long Ago, So Clear) (1996), and studio album Voices (1995) also sold well at the time. Vangelis composed the official anthem of the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea and Japan. In his last twenty years, Vangelis collaborated with NASA and ESA on music projects Mythodea (1993), Rosetta (2016), and Juno to Jupiter (2021), his 23rd and final studio album. Having had a career in music spanning over 50 years and having composed and performed more than 50 albums, Vangelis is one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music, and modern film music. He used many electronic instruments in a fashion of a "one-man quasi-classical orchestra" composing and performing on the first take.

Photo of Eleni Karaindrou

3. Eleni Karaindrou (1941 - )

With an HPI of 55.49, Eleni Karaindrou is the 3rd most famous Greek Composer.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Eleni Karaindrou (Greek: Ελένη Καραΐνδρου; born 25 November 1941) is a Greek composer. She is best known for scoring the films of the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos.

Photo of Spyridon Samaras

4. Spyridon Samaras (1861 - 1917)

With an HPI of 54.33, Spyridon Samaras is the 4th most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Spyridon-Filiskos Samaras (also Spyros, Spiro Samára; Greek: Σπυρίδων Σαμάρας) (29 November [O.S. 17 November] 1861 – 7 April [O.S. 25 March] 1917) was a Greek composer particularly admired for his operas who was part of the generation of composers that heralded the works of Giacomo Puccini. His compositions were praised worldwide during his lifetime and he is arguably the most important composer of the Ionian School. He composed also the Olympic Hymn on lyrics of Kostis Palamas. Among his works are the operas Flora mirabilis (1886) and Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (1905).

Photo of Manos Hatzidakis

5. Manos Hatzidakis (1925 - 1994)

With an HPI of 54.32, Manos Hatzidakis is the 5th most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Manos Hatzidakis (also spelled Hadjidakis; Greek: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις; 23 October 1925 – 15 June 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek composers. He was one of the main proponents of the "Éntekhno" form of music, along with Mikis Theodorakis, is the founder of the Orchestra of Colours, an ensemble performing lesser-known works and the music of Greek composers, and influenced a broad swathe of Greek culture through his writings and radio broadcasts. In 1960, Hatzidakis won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Never on Sunday" from the film Never on Sunday, but he refused the award because he felt that Athens was misrepresented in the film.

Photo of Nikos Skalkottas

6. Nikos Skalkottas (1904 - 1949)

With an HPI of 51.96, Nikos Skalkottas is the 6th most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Nikos Skalkottas (Greek: Νίκος Σκαλκώτας; 21 March 1904 – 19 September 1949) was a Greek composer of 20th-century classical music. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition. He also produced a sizeable amount of tonal music in the last phase of his musical creativity.

Photo of Nikolaos Mantzaros

7. Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795 - 1872)

With an HPI of 47.87, Nikolaos Mantzaros is the 7th most famous Greek Composer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros (Greek: Νικόλαος Χαλικιόπουλος Μάντζαρος, Greek pronunciation: [niˈkolaos xaliˈcopulos ˈmandzaros]; Italian: Niccoló Calichiopulo Manzaro, 26 October 1795 – 12 April 1872) was a Greek-Italian composer born in Corfu, major representative and founder of the so-called Ionian School of music (Επτανησιακή Σχολή).

Pantheon has 7 people classified as composers born between 1795 and 1943. Of these 7, 1 (14.29%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living composers include Eleni Karaindrou. The most famous deceased composers include Mikis Theodorakis, Vangelis, and Spyridon Samaras. As of April 2022, 2 new composers have been added to Pantheon including Eleni Karaindrou and Nikolaos Mantzaros.

Living Composers

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Deceased Composers

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Newly Added Composers (2022)

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Which Composers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 6 most globally memorable Composers since 1700.