Mikis Theodorakis

Born in 1925 on the island of Chios, Theodorakis composed his first songs when he was a child, without access to musical instruments. (He eventually took formal music lessons.) During the Greek Civil War, he worked with the Communist insurgents, was arrested and sent into exile. During the 50s he studied in Athens and Paris, briefly under Olivier Messiaen, and began composing major, award-winning classical pieces.

Returning to Greece in 1959, he began forming his own ensembles and composing what eventually became 1000 songs and song cycles; in 1964, he was elected to the Greek Parliament. His scores for Electra and notably for Zorba the Greek made him world famous. Under the junta he was arrested, banished into house arrest and finally sent to a concentration camp. Protests by international luminaries of music led to his release to exile in France, where he continued to agitate, via concerts around the world, against the junta.

After its fall, he returned to Greece, was twice elected to Parliament, and for two years served as government minister, as well Music Director of the Orchestra and Chorus of Hellenic Radio and Television. His musical compositions include at least five symphonies, chamber music, cantatas and oratorios, ballets, five operas, music for the stage, and many film scores, among them Michael Powell's Ill Met by Moonlight, Jules Dassin's Phaedra, Zorba the Greek, Costa-Gavras' Z and State of Siege, Electra, Iphigenia, and Sidney Lumet's Serpico.

Rialto Pictures