Eleni Karaindrou ( el, Ελένη Καραΐνδρου, born 25 November 1941) is a

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 ...

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 ...

. She is best known for scoring the films of the Greek director

Theo Angelopoulos Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (; ; 27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely re ...

Biography

Karaindrou moved with her family to

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 ...

when she was eight years old, and she studied piano and theory at the Hellenikon Odeion (

Hellenic Conservatory The Hellenic Conservatory ( el, Ελληνικό Ωδείο) is an educational institution for the performing arts in modern Greece. It was founded in Athens in 1919 by the composer Manolis Kalomiris. Kalomoiris was the conservatoire's director unt ...

). She also attended history and archaeology classes at the university. During the time of the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

she lived in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, where she studied

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

and

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

, and improvised with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

musicians. Then she began to compose popular songs. In 1974 she returned to Athens where she established a laboratory for traditional instruments and broadcast a series on ethnomusicology on Radio 3 of the Greek national broadcasting company. In 1976 she started collaborating with

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's ...

. This was a period of high productivity for her, during which she worked extensively on music for the theater and the cinema. Karaindrou has stated that her own personal style emerged in working on soundtracks and that the relationship between images and movements created a new space for her to express emotions. Her first

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' ...

was released in 1979 for the movie ''Periplanissi'' by Christoforos Christofis. In 1982 she won an award at the

Thessaloniki International Film Festival The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), organized by the cultural institution of the same name under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, is held every November in Thessaloniki.TIFF features international competition sect ...

and was noticed by

, who was serving as president of the jury. Karaindrou collaborated with the Greek director on his last eight films, from 1984 to 2008. Karaindrou is very prolific. By 2008 she had composed music for 18 full-length movies, 35 theatrical productions and 11 TV series and television movies. Among the screen directors she has worked with are

Chris Marker Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), '' A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''Sans Soleil ...

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...

, and

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement.

. In 1992 she received the Premio Fellini award. Recently, her compositions "Elegy for Rosa" and "Refugee's Theme" were featured prominently in the 2015 blockbuster film Mad Max: Fury Road. In November 9, 2012, her compositions were part of the concert “Music and songs for the films of Theo Angelopoulos”, co-organized by the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra in the context of the tribute hosted by the Festival to the greek filmmaker. In 2021 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Ghent Festival's World Soundtrack Awards.

Discography

* ''Tous des Oiseaux'' - ECM 2019 * ''David'' - ECM 2016 * '' pothoi kato apo tis leukes; gliko pouli tis niotis - mikri arktos 2016-2017 * ''Music for the Small Screen - Original Recordings 976-1989' - Mikri Arktos 2014 * ''Medea'' - ECM 2014 * ''Concert in Athens'' (live) - ECM 2013 * '' Dust of Time'' - ECM 2009 * The 10 (Greek TV: "το 10") - Mikri Arktos/ECM 2008 * ''

Elegy of the Uprooting ''Elegy of the Uprooting'' is a double CD live album by Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou featuring music recorded in 2005 and released on the ECM New Series label.

'' (live) - ECM 2005; Also released as DVD * ''The Weeping Meadow'' - ECM 2004 * ''Trojan Women'' (album) - ECM 2001 * '' Eternity and a Day'' - ECM 1998 * ''Rosa, Wandering'' - Lyra 1996 * ''

Ulysses' Gaze ''Ulysses' Gaze'' (, translit. ''To Vlemma tou Odyssea'') is a 1995 Greek film directed by Theo Angelopoulos and starring Harvey Keitel, Maia Morgenstern, and Erland Josephson. The film was selected as the Greek entry for the Best Foreign L ...

'' - ECM 1995 * ''The Suspended Step of the Stork'' - ECM 1992 * ''Music for Films'' - ECM 1991 * ''The Suspended Step of the Stork'' - Minos 1991 * ''Unreleased Recordings'' - Minos 1991 * ''L'Africana'' - Minos 1990 * ''Herod Atticus Odeon'' (live) - Minos 1988 * ''Landscape in the Mist'' - Milan 1988 * ''The Beekeeper'' - Minos 1986 * ''Happy Homecoming, Comrade'' - ECM 1986 * ''Voyage to Cythera'' - Minos 1984 * ''The Price of Love'' - Minos 1983 * '' Music and songs for the theater,mikri arktos, 1983 -1993 * ''The Great Vigil'' - Minos 1975

References

External links

* Eleni Karaindrou i
IMDB
* Eleni Karaindrou i
musicolog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karaindrou, Eleni 1941 births Living people 21st-century pianists Greek composers Greek women composers Greek pianists Greek women pianists Greek film score composers Theatre in Greece People from Phocis 21st-century women pianists