John Ghikas - Composer

John Ghikas was born in 1974 in Athens and studied piano and advanced theory at the National Conservatory with Mike Rozakis, Dimitris Dragatakis, Aspasia Fassoula and Christos Pouris as well as compositional lessons with Anastasis Filippakopoulos.

From an early age he showed an inclination towards music and especially composition, writing works for piano, duets, trios as well as chamber music for a larger orchestra while at the same time orchestrating various types of music.

In 1993 he won the first (work for piano and violin) and the third prize (work for solo piano) in the Pan-Hellenic composition’s competition organized by the Municipal Conservatory of Maroussi.

In 1996 he founded the chamber music ensemble "Major Absences", (quintet of strings, flute, piano and mandolin) with him on the piano and making transcriptions to music from world cinema, music by Manos Hadjidakis also presenting his own compositions. With this ensemble, he appeared in major music venues in Athens such as the House of Arts, Half Note, the "Gallery", Gazzarte and the Athens Concert Hall at "Dimitris Mitropoulos" hall.

In 2001 he participated with his orchestrations in the album "September" by Nikos Platyrachos in which the Orchestra of Colors also participated under the direction of Miltos Logiadis.

In 2005 he collaborated again with Nikos Platyrachos on the orchestrations for the soundtrack of the movie "The Choir of Chariton".

In July 2006, he collaborated as an orchestrator with the "Enchorda tis Patras" orchestra as well as with many distinguished soloists for the concert "Alexandrino Light" which was presented at Herodium with the soprano Sonia Theodoridou as the performer.

In 2007, he orchestrated the entire concert program of Giannis Parios, "the recital of a voice" at the Athens Concert Hall, in which the Sofia Symphony Orchestra and the Athens Conservatory choir participated, under the direction of Alexandros Myrat.

In 2009, he composed and orchestrated the music for the performance "A Christmas Story" by Charles Dickens, in the Friends of Music Hall at the Athens Palace, which was narrated by Jeremy Irons, while a year later he worked on the orchestrations of Vicky Leandros' concert which also took place in Athens Concert Hall with conductor Alexandros Myrat.

In 2010 he wrote the music for the soundtrack of the animation short film "Struthio" directed by Alexis Xaviara.

In December 2013, he collaborated with the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki for the New Year's concert performed by Hara Kefala.

In 2016, he arranged and orchestrated for the band "Kitrina Podilata", the album "the orchestra project" which was released in November of the same year with the ERT modern music orchestra, with conductor Alexios Priftis.

At the same time, he writes symphonic and chamber music as well as music for the theater performance "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare, directed by Yiannis Anastasakis under the auspices of DIPETHE Ioannina.

In 2018, the National Symphony Orchestra of ERT, recorded three of his works from the suite for symphony orchestra, "portraits of the Gods" which were presented by Nikolas Vivlakis' show "Mountains", on behalf of the Third Program. Similarly, in the Third program, the work "Witches' Sabbath" which is inspired by the painting of the same title by Francisco Goya, has been heard, through Katia Kallitsounaki's show "Musical moments in time: Greek composers and performers in the 21st century".

Throughout the last few years, he has collaborated, arranging songs for symphony orchestra, with distinguished artists of the Greek music scene such as Nikos Xydakis, Nikos Portokaloglou, Pyx Lax, Onirama, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Dimitra Galani, Yiannis Koutras, Christos Thivaios, Vassilis Gisdakis, Eleni Peta, Doros Dimosthenous, Costas Thomaidis et al.

In 2023, he orchestrated part of Minos Matsa's concert "the music invisible within us" in which the National Symphony Orchestra of ERT participated under the direction of Miltos Logiadis.

During the last twenty-five years he has been involved in music production at a high level, having greater expertise in music technology through sound samples that simulate the symphony orchestra, but also sound engineering.

His synthetic musical idiom stands out for its descriptiveness, timbre transitions, rich harmony, but also intense changes of dynamics and expression, and his influences from the music of 20th century composers as well as the music of American cinema are particularly evident.

Since October 2023, John Ghikas is represented worldwide by Musicentry.