He composed the most recognizable Greek rhythm in the world, the syrtaki of the film “Zorba the Greek .”

He made poetry familiar to common people, by composing songs based on Greek poets’ masterpieces.

He brought together folk and classical music in a unique and timeless way.

Mikis Theodorakis, the world famous Greek composer and writer, passed away at the age of 96, at home, as was his wish.

Endlessly creative, he wrote all kinds of music and collaborated with international personalities among them, Anthony Quinn, the Beatles and Edith Piaf.

His political life was marked by his participation in the anti – Nazi resistance, the following persecution, his anti-dictatorship struggle in Greece and exile and the fight for social rights in Greece, always under the banner of the left.

He also tried to mediate between warring parties at different parts of the world (i.e. between Israelis and Palestinians).

In Greece, he was twice elected Member of Parliament, took over ministerial portfolios and public positions.

“I spent the most critical, powerful and mature years of my life under the banner of the Communist Party” he wrote in a letter addressed to the Secretery General of the Communist Party of Greece, Dimitris Koutsoubas. “That is why I want to leave this world as a communist” Theodorakis said in the letter\ that was published after the news of his death.

In the late years of his life he has established a political movement “Spitha” that opposed the adjustment programs imposed to Greece during the debt crisis and the Prespa Agreement between Greece and North Macedonia.

Few personalities in Greece have united and divided so much and few have been so deeply loved.

“He was a symbol of the struggle for good” said the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Hi funeral will take place in his place of origin, Crete.

Mikis Theodorakis at Kerkyra Publications

Kerkyra Publications has the honor of publishing two rare books in english on Mikis Theodorakis:

Mikis Theodorakis: Finding Greece in His Music by Angelique Mouyis

The book interrogates the construction of modern Greek identity in Theodorakis’ music. After examining the composer’s musical and political life, the author focuses on characteristic works of varying genres discussing Theodorakis’ unique re-interpretation of modern Greek identity through them.

In the words of Cornell University professor Gail Holst-Warfat, this book is an important contribution to the understanding of Theodorakis’ music, a subject which has been largely neglected by musicologists in his own country, and which deserves to be better known in all its brilliance and abundance by music lovers all over th e world.

Mikis Theodorakis: My Posters

This is the first-time ever publication of posters from the personal archive of the renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis. A rare and delightful collection of posters from 1952 to the present, spanning more than half a century of concerts from Berlin to Bilbao and from St. Petersburg to St. Paul, as the composer and his orchestra journeyed throughout the modern world spreading the word, always both musical and political, in the form of Greek popular songs, crowdrousing oratorios, or hugely successful ballets.

This gallery of images graphic signposts, really, in a wide-ranging itinerary that made Theodorakis synonymous with Greece and freedom will also be appreciated for their visual variety, as the artists’ approaches mirror cultural differences according to the country of origin.

Book is bilingual (English-Greek) and includes CD with previously unreleased excerpts from Mikis Theodorakis’ concerts abroad.