Manolis Kalomiris

Born in Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), he attended school in Constantinople and studied piano and composition in Vienna.

After working for a few years as a piano teacher in Kharkov, Russian Empire, he settled in Athens.

An admirer of Richard Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Kostis Palamas, and Nikos Kazantzakis, he set himself the life goal of establishing a Greek "national school" of music, based on the ideas of the Russian national composers, on western musical achievements and on modern Greek folk music, poetry and myth.

At the same time, he served as the General Supervisor of military bands in the country.

A passionate composer, he has a post-romantic idiom characterised by rich harmonies and orchestrations, complex counterpoints, long eastern melodies, and the frequent use of Greek folk rhythms.