The famous composer Vangelis Papathanasiou is died at the age of 79. He received the Oscar for the music for the film “Chariots of Fire” in 1982.
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanasiou (Vangelis Papathanassiou) was born in Agria, Volos on March 29, 1943 and started composing at a very young age (4 years old). He was essentially self-taught, as he refused to take classical piano lessons. He studied classical music, painting and directing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens.
At the age of 6 and without any training, he gave his first public performance, with his own compositions. From childhood, his unique and spontaneous technique, which allows him to eliminate the distance between inspiration and the moment of execution, was obvious and obvious.
Young man, in the 60s, he formed the group Forminx which was very popular in Greece. In 1968, he moved to Paris, where he enjoyed a three-year collaboration with the group Aphrodite's Child , a group that it forms with Demi Rousseau and which then becomes the most popular in Europe. Using this experience as a first step into the music industry, he then began to expand his horizons of research, music and sound through the use of electronic know-how. In 1975, he left Aphrodite's Child to settle in London. There he fulfilled his dream of creating state-of-the-art music recording facilities, Nemo Studios .
In 1978, he collaborated with the Greek actress Irini Pappas on the album titled “odes” which contains traditional Greek songs, while in 1986 they collaborated again on the album “Rhapsodies” , as well as a series of albums with Jon Anderson Group Yes .
In 1982, he was honored with a Oscar for the song of the same name in the film “Roads of Fire” . He then composed the music for the films: “Blade Runner” (Ridley Scott) “Missing” (Costas Gavras) and Antarctica (Koreyoshi Kurahara). All three films were commercially and artistically successful, with “Antarctica” becoming the most popular film ever produced in Japan. During the same decade, Vangelis added music for theater and ballet to his already rich repertoire.
In 1995, Vangelis' world-renowned productive offering and intriguing space charm have led to the naming of a minor planet in his honor by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory. Asteroid 6354 , today and forever, called Vangelis, is located 247 million kilometers from the Sun. Nearby, in the spatial sense of the word, are the minor planets Beethoven, Mozart and Bach.
On June 28, 2001, Vangelis presented a monumental concert of his vocal chord “Mythodea” (Mythographer), Asked Pillars of Olympian Zeus in Athens, the first major concert ever held in this sacred place. With internationally renowned sopranos Kathleen Battle et Jessye Norman , accompanied by a 120-member orchestra, 20 percussionists and Vangelis creating on electronic instruments and synthesizers.
In 2003, he revealed his talents as a painter by presenting 70 of his own paintings at the Valencia Biennial in Spain. Following the success of the exhibition “Vangelis Painting” , his works are exhibited in the largest galleries in the world. In the same year, Papathanassiou also presented a book containing some of his finest works, entitled "Vangelis" .
“The Universe has lost one of its greatest composers”
The cultural events company Lavrys says goodbye to the composer, noting that “he did not have time to be with us during the international tour of his latest work, The Thread , whom he loved and believed so much. Specifically, Georgia Iliopoulou, CEO of the company, states that“The Universe has lost one of its greatest composers. Greece has lost one of the most important ambassadors of its culture. I lost a very good friend, who for thirty years had created our personal codes and traced common horizons. The last horizon we contemplated together, my dear friend, was “The Wire”. Three years of hard and meticulous work, which was to be the last horizon of your artistic creation on the set. I owe you a lot for what we've been through, for what you've trusted me to do, for what we've created.”
NASA: Hera travels to Zeus and Ganymede with a “soundtrack” by Vangelis Papathanassiou (video)
Lyrics by Stephen Hawking with music by Vangelis Papathanassiou will be broadcast in space