Stamatis Spanoudakis

Stamatis Spanoudakis (Greek: Σταμάτης Σπανουδάκης; born 11 December 1948 in Athens, Greece) is a modern Greek classical composer. In his early career, he studied classical guitar. He shifted to rock music, but then continued classical studies at the Würzburg State Conservatory (now the Hochschule für Musik) with Bertold Hummel and later in Athens with Konstantinos Kydoniatis. Later in his career, he studied Byzantine music.

Biography
Stamatis Spanoudakis was born in Athens, and is from an old aristocratic Greek family. Very early on he began to occupy himself with music.

He first studied Classical music (guitar and theory). He later played bass guitar and keyboards in a number of bands, in the sixties and the seventies, in Athens, Paris and London where he lived and recorded his first albums.

He later returned to Classical music and resumed his studies of composition, first in Würzburg with professor Bertold Hummel and then in Athens with professor Konstantinos Kydoniatis.

He was then attracted to his third love - Byzantine music, which led him to Greek songwriting and instrumental music.

Since then he is consciously trying to reconcile his three musical influences (Rock, classical and Byzantine) in his music.

He wrote numerous hit songs (words and music) for most major Greek singers.

He also wrote the music for many successful films in Greece, Germany and Italy, for the theater and television and has recorded so far more than sixty albums.

Since 1995, he concentrates on instrumental music, based on Greek historical or religious themes, a music that has an unprecedented appeal in Greece.

Stamatis lives in a quiet suburb with his wife Dori and their four dogs. He has his own studio where he records his music, being the composer, arranger, producer, performer and engineer of his work.

An introduction
He has worked with various Greek singers, composing the music and writing the lyrics for a large number of hit songs (I akti, Pame gi’alles polities, Lathos epohi, Simera, Efiges noris, Zoi klemmeni, Kalimera ti kanis). With his religious works, he has provided a very different perspective of contemporary byzantine music (Kyrie ton Dynameon, Efta Paraklisis, Imera Triti, Earini Ora). He has made numerous soundtracks (Colours of Iris, Angel, Sudden Love, Stone Years, All in a road, Brides). Since 1994, he has exclusively composed instrumental music, such as music that embraces Greece's history and religion (Alexandros, John’s Tear, Marble King, For Smyrni, A Piece of My Soul, Moments Gone, Alexandros II, Rejoice my sea).