Eleni Karaindrou

Eleni Karaindrou is a Greek composer born in the village of Tichio in Central Greece on November 25 1941. She is best known for scoring the films of the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos.
Karaindrou moved to Athens with her family when she was eight years old, and she studied piano and music theory at the Hellenikon Conservatory.

She also attended history and archaeology classes at university. During the time of the Greek military junta from 1967-1974 she lived in Paris, where she studied ethnomusicology and orchestration, and improvised with jazz musicians. Then she began to compose songs which became popular.
In 1974 she returned to Athens where she established a laboratory for traditional instruments and collaborated with the department of ethnomusicology of the Greek national broadcasting company. In 1976 she discovered Ecm Records, and appreciated the creative freedom offered by the label. This was a period of high productivity for her; she was also introduced to music for theater and cinema. Karaindrou has stated that her own personal style emerged in working on soundtracks and that the relationship between images and movements created a new space for her to express emotions.
Her first soundtrack album was released in 1979 for the movie Periplanissi by Christoforos Christofis. In 1982 she won an award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and was noticed by Theo Angelopoulos, who was the president of the jury. Karaindrou collaborated with the Greek director on his last eight films from 1984 to 2008.
Since 1975 she has composed music for 22 films, 50 theatre plays and 15 television and radio programs, working with top Greek and foreign directors. In 1992 she received the “Premio Fellini” award. Recently, her compositions "Elegy for Rosa" and "Refugee's Theme" were featured prominently in the 2015 blockbuster film Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

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