Nikos Skalkottas

Nikos Skalkottas was a prolific Greek composer whose singular synthesis of twelve-tone serialism with traditional Greek folk modes placed him among the foremost modernists of his era.

Studying violin and composition in Berlin under Arnold Schoenberg, Skalkottas returned to Athens in 1933, working quietly as a rank-and-file orchestral violinist while composing hundreds of complex chamber, vocal, and symphonic masterworks in relative obscurity.

His post-war international discovery revealed a genius of breathtaking structural complexity, best remembered by the public for his exhilarating orchestral suite '36 Greek Dances'.