Marios Tokas ( el, Μάριος Τόκας) (8 June 1954 – 27 April 2008) was a Cypriot

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

of traditional music born in

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban populatio ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. During the 1974

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing ...

, he fought as a soldier against the Turkish invaders. In 1975, he went to Athens in order to study in the philosophical school. At the same time, he studied in the Ethniko Odio because he wanted to start a career as a musician. In 2004, Tokas and his six-member orchestra gave a concert in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The concert was co-organised by the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Society of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and the

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Sports Association "Pantalkis" with the support of the General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad of the

Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

, under the auspices of the Cypriot

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or s ...

Death

On 27 April 2008, Tokas died of cancer in Athens. Cypriot president Dimitris Christofias had visited him in the hospital towards the end of his life. He was buried in

First Cemetery of Athens The First Cemetery of Athens ( el, Πρώτο Νεκροταφείο Αθηνών, ''Próto Nekrotafeío Athinón'') is the official cemetery of the City of Athens and the first to be built. It opened in 1837 and soon became a prestigious ceme ...

. He is regarded by some as the most prominent composer in Cyprus and Greece. M. Tokas may be remembered for his passion for Cyprus and the connection of his music with Cyprus.

References

External links

www.mariostokas.gr Official websiteOfficial Facebook Page
* 1954 births 2008 deaths Cypriot composers Male composers People from Limassol 20th-century Cypriot male singers {{Cyprus-composer-stub