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Manos Hadjidakis

Manos Hatzidakis
Manos hadjidakis.jpg
Background information
Born (1925-10-23)23 October 1925
Xanthi, Greece
Died 15 June 1994(1994-06-15) (aged 68)
Athens, Greece
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Composer
  • musician
Instruments
  • Piano
  • violin
  • accordion
Years active 1944–1994
Website www.hadjidakis.gr

Manos Hatzidakis (also spelled Hadjidakis; Greek: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις; 23 October 1925 – 15 June 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music. He was also one of the main movers of the "Éntekhno" song (along with Mikis Theodorakis). In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name.

Manos Hatzidakis was born on 23 October 1925 in Xanthi, Greece to lawyer Georgios Hatzidakis, who came from the village of Mirthios, Agios Vasileios in the Rethymno prefecture in Crete; and Aliki Arvanitidou, who came from Adrianopolis. His musical education began at the age of fourteen and consisted of piano lessons from the Armenian pianist Altunian. At the same time, he learned to play the violin and the accordion.

After the separation of his parents, Hatzidakis moved permanently to Athens in 1932 with his mother. A few years later in 1938, his father died in an aircraft accident. This event, in combination with the beginning of World War II, brought the family into a difficult financial situation. The young Hatzidakis earned his livelihood as a docker at the port, an ice seller at the Fix factory, an employee in Megalokonomou's photography shop and as an assistant nurse at the 401 Military Hospital.

At the same time, he expanded his musical knowledge by studying advanced music theory with Menelaos Pallandios, in the period 1940-1943. At the same time, he studied philosophy at the University of Athens. However, he never completed this course. During this period, he met and connected with other musicians, writers and intellectuals. Among these were Nikos Gatsos, George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, Angelos Sikelianos and the artist Yannis Tsarouchis. During the last period of the Axis occupation of Greece, he was an active participant in the Greek Resistance through membership of the United Panhellenic Organization of Youth (EPON), the youth branch of the major resistance organisation EAM, where he met Mikis Theodorakis with whom he soon developed a strong friendship.


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