Greek composer Notis Mavroudis died late on Tuesday (Greece time) at the age of 77 in his home in Koukourava, Pilio, when he fell head first from a height of three meters and hit a stone.
Mavroudis was also a songwriter, a guitarist, a columnist and a radio producer. He worked with many distinguished musicians and was honoured with international awards.
“If something characterised our father Notis Mavroudis as a person, it was his kindness, his morals and his modesty,” his son, Haris Mavroudis, posted on Facebook.
Born in 1945, Notis Mavroudis spent the first two years of his life in jail next to his mother, who was a political prisoner.
As a teenager, he started guitar lessons in 1958 at the National Conservatoire, the premier Performing Arts educational institution in Greece and got his diploma in 1969 with honours.
His first album was released in 1964 with the songs ‘Akri den ehi o ouranos’ [There is no limit to the sky] and ‘Ta giortina sou forese’ [Put on your best clothes], with lyrics by Yiannis Kakoulidis and performed by Giorgos Zografos.
In the meantime, still as student, in 1968 he set to music Odysseus Elytis’ Heroic and Lamenting Song for the Lost Lieutenant of Albania, a folk oratorio for voice choir and orchestra.
In 1970 he attended courses of the Santiago de Compostella Academy in Spain with Jose Tomas and moved to Italy where he became the chair of classical guitar at the Scuola Ciciva di Milano, where he taught until 1975.
In 1975, he left his prestigious role at the Scuola Ciciva di Milano and permanently settled in Athens where he started teaching classical guitar at the National Conservatoire.
In 1977 Mavroudis wrote music for Manos Hadjidakis’ poetry in the album Child of the Earth.
His next album titled Eros anikate mahan was released in 1985 featuring lyrics and poetry by Ilias Petropoulos.
From 1990 on Mavroudis mainly collaborated with the Dimitris Typaldos Children’s Choir.
– With AMNA.
Listen to Notis Mavroudis’ classics here:
