Athanasios "Thanos" Mikroutsikos ( el, Αθανάσιος (Θάνος) Μικρούτσικος; 13 April 1947 – 28 December 2019) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

composer and politician. He is considered one of the most important composers of the recent Greek musical scene.

Biography

Personal life

He was born on 13 April 1947 in Patra. He was the older brother of

Andreas Mikroutsikos Andreas Mikroutsikos ( Greek: Ανδρέας Μικρούτσικος; born 1952 in Patras) is a Greek composer, lyricist, singer and TV presenter. Music career His top hits were ''Hameno Nisi'' (Lost Island), ''To Koutsouraki'' (Little Log), ''K ...

, who is also a musician/composer and a television show host. His wife was children's author Maria Papagianni, whom he married in 1996. He died on 28 December 2019, after a long fight with cancer, at age 72.

Music

He studied piano and composition in the Philharmonic Society of Patras, in the Hellenic Conservatory, and privately with

Yiannis Papaioannou Yiannis Papaioannou ( gr, Ιωάννης Ανδρέου Παπαιωάννου; 6 January 1910, Kavala – 19 May 1989, Athens) was a Greek composer and teacher of the Modern Era. He studied piano with Marika Laspopoulou and composition with ...

. In addition, he studied

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

. He began composing at the end of the 1960s but only officially debuted in 1975, with the release of his album ''Politika Tragoudia'' ('Political Songs'). He continued on this compositional path, setting to music the poems of

Giannis Ritsos Yiannis Ritsos ( el, Γιάννης Ρίτσος; 1 May 1909 – 11 November 1990) was a Greek poet and communist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II. While he disliked being regarded as a political poet, he has b ...

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

, Manos Eleftheriou and Bertold Brecht, amongst others. His albums ''Kantata gia ti Makroniso'' (''

Cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning o ...

for

Makronisos Makronisos ( el, Μακρόνησος, lit. ''Long Island''), or Makronisi, is an island in the Aegean sea, in Greece, notorious as the site of a political prison from the 1920s to the 1970s. It is located close to the coast of Attica, facing t ...

''), ''Fouente Ovehouna'' ('' Fuenteovejuna''), ''Troparia gia Foniades'' (''Hymns for Murderers'') and ''Mousiki Praxi Ston Brecht'' (''Musical Practice on

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

'') are characteristic of the climate of

Metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek peop ...

or Regime Change that was taking place in the period 1975–78. In particular, the ''Cantata for Makronisos'', a pioneering piece in which Mikroutsikos experimented with

atonality Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a ...

was extremely well received in international music festivals and an interpretation of particular note was recorded by

Maria Dimitriadi Maria Dimitriadi ( el, Μαρία Δημητριάδη) (11 April 1950 – 6 January 2009), was a Greek singer. She was one of the most renowned performers of the songs of Mikis Theodorakis and Thanos Mikroutsikos. Dimitiradi primarily connected w ...

. His next album, ''Stavros tou Notou'' (''

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

''), set to the poetry of Nikos Kavvadias, opened up further musical avenues for him, combining

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

and

(a second album, ''Grammes ton orizondon'', set to the poetry of Kavvadias was released in 1991). With the same devotion to poetry, he continued to set the works of

, Alkis Alkaios,

François Villon François Villon ( Modern French: , ; – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these e ...

and

Constantine P. Cavafy Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gree ...

, amongst others. In addition, he has written an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, ''Eleni'' (''Helen'') and set to music several children's fairytales. He has worked with many renowned singers such as

Haris Alexiou Haris Alexiou ( el, Χάρις Αλεξίου, ; born 27 December 1950 in Thebes, Greece as Hariklia Roupaka, el, Χαρίκλεια Ρουπάκα, ) is a Greek singer. She is considered one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been co ...

, Manolis Mitsias, Dimitris Mitropanos, George Dalaras,

Vasilis Papakonstantinou Vasilis Papakonstantinou (Βασίλης Παπακωνσταντίνου) (born 21 June 1950) is a Greek singer known mostly for his work in Greek rock. Most of his songs have gained considerable popularity, mainly in Greece and Cyprus. Early ...

, Christos Thibaios, Miltiadis Paschalidis, Rita Antonopoulou and Giannis Koutras, amongst others. His music has been particularly well received and recognised in Western Europe. During his compositional career, he has managed to liberate the form of Greek song, adding together elements from the modernist and classical

western tradition Eugen Joseph Weber (April 24, 1925 – May 17, 2007) was a Romanian-born American historian with a special focus on Western civilization. Weber became a historian because of his interest in politics, an interest dating back to at least the age ...

. He also experimented with the combination of tonal and atonal sounds and with morphological variation. He was artistic director of the New Music Society and the Musical Analogion, whilst he also worked with and directed the Patras International Festival.

Politics

He was involved in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

's political life since the 1960s. During the turbulent years of the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

, he was persecuted by the regime for his anti-dictatorial activities and ideas. When the junta collapsed, he continued being actively involved in politics as a member of the

maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

EKKE, especially in the first years after the restoration of

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...

. After the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

of October 1993, he was appointed as Deputy Minister of Culture by the new

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

(PASOK) government, serving alongside the late

Melina Mercouri Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a political family that was prominent over multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination a ...

who was Minister of Culture. He was appointed to Mercouri's position when she died in 1994, a position he kept until 1996. He was a supporter of the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece. Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curre ...

Discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mikroutsikos, Thanos 1947 births 2019 deaths Politicians from Patras National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni 21st-century classical composers Greek entehno singers Greek classical pianists Greek communists PASOK politicians Male classical composers Culture ministers of Greece Male classical pianists 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century Greek male singers Musicians from Patras 20th-century Greek male singers