Yannis Markopoulos

Yannis Markopoulos (; 18 March 1939 – 10 June 2023) was a Greek composer. Biography Early life and education Yannis Markopoulos was born in 1939 in Heraklion, Crete. Born into one of the old families of the island — his father was an attorney and later a Prefect — he spent his childhood in the seaside town of Ierapetra. The Byzantine liturgy heard regularly from the church opposite his family home, Cretan traditional music, with its rapid dances of repeated small motifs, played by local instruments at the town’s weekly festivities, but at the same time the sound of the waves, and the detonation of land-mines in the aftermath of World War II, all these formed part of the acoustic universe of the composer as a child. He took his first lessons in music theory and the violin at the local conservatory and played the clarinet in the municipal band. Other musical experiences of importance were classical music as well as the music of the wider Eastern Mediterranean and that of nearby Egypt, which he heard either over the radio or from musicians and travellers passing through his hometown. Due to his father’s extensive private library he had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge, beyond s