Mikis Theodorakis was born to Georges Theodorakis (originally from Chania, Crete) and Aspasia Poulakis (from Çeşme in Asia Minor, now Turkey) on 29 July, 1925 on the island of Chios in the Eastern Aegean Sea. Exposed to Byzantine and Demotic Greek music from birth, at the age of 12, Theodorakis took up the violin and composed his first works, settings of neo-Hellenic poetry which collectively formed the set of Songs for children, big and small.

Shortly afterwards, he began studies at the Athens Conservatory, which were cut short due to his participation in the Greek partisan resistance to the Nazi occupation, and later, by the Greek civil war, during which Theodorakis was exiled, first to Icaria and then to Makronissos. During his time as a Greek partisan, he was introduced to Marxist and Leninist ideology, and committed himself wholeheartedly to defending freedom. As such, music and politics became the “complementary elements” that would shape his life. Theodorakis finally completed his studies, graduating with degrees in music theory and counterpoint in 1951, and subsequently embarked upon a career as a composer in Greece.

In 1953, he married Myrto Altinoglou, whom he had met in 1943. In 1954, Theodorakis and his wife both received study grants from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) and moved to Paris, where Theodorakis was reunited with his friend and fellow civil war veteran, Iannis Xenakis. He undertook further study of analysis and conducting with Olivier Messiaen and Eugène Bigot, respectively, at the Paris Conservatoire.

The years from 1954 to 1960 saw a flurry of activity in the creative capitals of Europe. During this period, Theodorakis composed works for orchestra and chambre ensemble, ballets, and film scores. In 1957, his Suite No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra was awarded the first prize in the Moscow International Youth Festival Composition Competition, an honour bestowed upon the composer by Dimitri Shostakovich.

In 1958, Theodorakis’ first child, Margarita, was born. This was also the year in which he composed the song cycle L’Épitaphe, marking the beginning of what Theodorakis himself dubbed the “movement of intellectual popular song”, and representing a prophetic critique of the looming Greek cultural revolution of the 1960s.

In 1959, on the recommendation of Darius Milhaud, the William and Noma Copley Foundation bestowed upon Theodorakis the Prize of the Best European Composer. In 1960, a few months after the birth of Theodorakis’ second child, Georges, the family returned to Greece.

In 1963, in a volatile political climate, Grigoris Lambrakis, pacifist and Deputy of the United Democratic Left (EDA), was murdered. To pay tribute to a man for whom Theodorakis held a deep respect, he founded the Lambrakis Youth Association, better known as Lambrakides, and served as its president. This marked the beginning of a long-term political campaign by Theodorakis to establish and support organisations promoting culture throughout Greece.

In 1964, Theodorakis was elected Deputy of the EDA, a role he fulfilled alongside his activities as a composer.

Dreaming of creating “music for the masses” based on “intellectual popular song,” Theodorakis spent some twenty years setting to music the works of the great poets of the 20th century, including Greek writers such as Georges Séféris, Odysseus Elytis, Yannis Ritsos, Costas Varnalis, as well as Brendan Behan, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, and others. This endeavour gave rise to works including Épiphanie, Enas omiros, Romancero Gitano, and Canto General.

Theodorakis gained considerable acclaim as a composer of film music, most notably for his score for Alexis Zorbas [Zorba the Greek] (1965), directed by Michael Cacoyannis.

In 1966, Theodorakis was awarded the Sibelius Prize by an international commission made up of Pablo Casals, Darius Milhaud, and Zoltán Kodály.

On 21 April 1967, the date of the “Generals’ coup,” Theodorakis went into hiding. On the same day, he addressed a call to resist to the Greek people, which was broadcast, as specified in his publication “Debt,” with utmost discretion but by all means possible, i.e. telephone calls, word of mouth, and flyers. A few days later, he announced the creation of the Patriotic Front (PA. M.), a resistance organisation. On 11 June, the government banned the diffusion of Theodorakis’ music. The composer was later arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and sent into exile. His declining health during this period led public figures living abroad, such as Dimitri Shostakovich, Aram Khatchaturian, Dmitri Kabalevski, Louis Aragon, Laurence Olivier, and Arthur Miller to rally for his release. Later, with the help of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, he escaped to Paris. Theodorakis spent the remaining years of the Greek military regime giving press conferences and countless concerts throughout the world as acts of protest against the dictatorship in his native Greece. With the fall of the Regime of the Colonels in July 1974, Theodorakis returned to Athens, receiving a hero’s welcome. He performed previously banned songs throughout Greece while the nation celebrated the restoration of democracy.

In 1977, Theodorakis organised the Lycabette Theatre “August of Music” Festival, in which his major works were presented in 28 consecutive concerts. At the same time, he remained active in politics, and was re-elected to public office in 1981 and 1985 as a representative of the Greek Communist Party, and in 1990 as a member of the New Democracy Party.

For some twenty years, Theodorakis split his time between Greece and France, and devoted himself to the composition of a number of works for orchestra. In 1992, his work Canto Olympico, a commission of the International Olympic Committee, was premiered at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1993-94, he served as Executive Manager of Musicians and Ensembles of Greek Radio and Television (ERT).

In 1995, living once again in Paris, he composed his fourth opera, Antigone, while in the same year, his third, Electra, was premiered in Luxembourg. In 1997, he donated his archives to the Lilian Voudouri Music Library of Greece in Athens.

In 2002, his first opera, Lysistrata, was performed as part of the Cultural Olympiad.

Theodorakis received numerous prizes and accolades throughout his career, including the Lenin Peace Prize (1983), the Onassis Prize for Civilisation (2004), the Olympiart Prize from the International Olympic Committee (2004), the UNESCO International Prize for Music (2005), and the Russian Prize “Dialogues of Civilisations” (2005). In 2000, his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize was supported by numerous governments, politicians, and artists from around the globe. He was made an Officier of the Legion of Honour in 1996 by President François Mitterrand, and then a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2006 by President Jacques Chirac. He has been awarded honourary doctorates by the Universities of Athens (1996), Quebec (1998), Thessaloniki (2000), and Crete (2005 and 2006).

On 3 December 2013, he was formally inducted into the Athens Academy. He died 2 September 2021.