Stefanos Korkolis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008)

Stefanos Korkolis (born 12 September 1962) is a Greek composer and pianist. He was born in Athens and grew up in Patissia. He is a nephew of the renowned Greek composer Mimis Plessas.

He was cosnidered a prodigy for starting playing the piano since the age of five without prior lessons. His first teacher was piano soloist Marika Papaioannou. Until the age of seven he performed as a self-taught pianist. At age eleven he enrolled in the Athens Conservatoire. His piano teacher was Phoebe Vallinda and harmony teacher was Menelaos Pallantios. Two and a half years later he partakes in an international piano contest winning the first prize, as well as a scholarship from the French government. The latter enabled him to continue his studies at École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

From the age of 17 and for 11 years he was known as "... the French pianist Korkolis, of Greek nationality...". He attended seminars on chorus direction and instrumentation by Vladimir Horowitz, Yvonne Lefébure and others. During that period he composed music for theatrical and cinematic productions. Eleven years later he abandonded classical music which resulted in the revocation of his scholarship. As a composer and a director he started releasing independent records some of which reached the status of gold.