Nicolas Economou

Nicolas Economou (; 11 August 1953 – 29 December 1993) was a Cypriot composer, pianist and conductor born in Nicosia, Cyprus. Economou came to international attention at the 1969 Tchaikovsky Competition when he was 16. After studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow he eventually moved via Düsseldorf to Munich. From his base there he established himself throughout Europe as a concert pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and organiser of music festivals. In December 1993 Economou died in a car accident in Cyprus. Early life, training Nicolas Economou was the first child of his family. His parents, who loved classical music, decided to expose him to music as a creative outlet rather than a career. At the age of five, he started taking piano lessons and soon began improvising on the piano and composing short pieces of music. When Solon Michaelides, the celebrated Cypriot composer, conductor, musicologist and friend of the family heard him play for the first time, when Economou was not yet seven years old, he declared: “This child is a blessing to his parents, Cyprus, and the World”. On his advice, Economou’s musical training was undertaken by George Arvanitakis. The turning