Vangelis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Vangelis
Vangelis at the premiere of El Greco in 2007
Background information
Native name	Βαγγέλης
Birth name	Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou
Born	(1943-03-29)29 March 1943 Agria, Greece
Died	17 May 2022(2022-05-17) (aged 79) Paris, France
Genres	Electronic ambient experimental classical progressive rock new-age
Occupation(s)	Composer arranger producer
Instruments	Keyboards synthesizers
Years active	1963–2022
Labels	Universal RCA Atlantic Sony Warner Bros. Polydor Deutsche Grammophon Decca

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( vang-GHEL-iss; Greek: Βαγγέλης), was a Greek keyboardist, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.

Having had a career in music spanning over 50 years and having composed and performed more than 50 albums, Vangelis is one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music, and modern film music. He used many electronic instruments in a fashion of a "one-man quasi-classical orchestra" composing and performing on the first take.

Early life

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou was born on 29 March 1943 in Agria, a coastal town in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece, and raised in Athens. His father Odysseus worked in property and was an amateur sprinter; Vangelis described him as "a great lover of music". His mother Foteini Kyriakopoulou was trained as a soprano. Vangelis had one brother, Nikos. Vangelis recalled a peaceful and happy childhood without interference from his parents, who let him be involved in his activities, mainly consisting of playing the piano, painting, and constructing things with his hands.

Vangelis developed an interest in music at age four, composing on the family piano and experimenting with sounds by placing nails and kitchen pans inside it and with radio interference. When he was six his parents enrolled him for music lessons, but was unable to take to formal tuition as he preferred to develop technique on his own. In later life he considered himself fortunate to have not attended music school, thinking it would have impeded his creativity. He never learned to read or write music, instead played from memory: "When the teachers asked me to play something, I would pretend that I was reading it and play from memory. I didn't fool them, but I didn't care". One of his piano teachers was Greek composer Aristotelis Koundouroff.

Vangelis found traditional Greek music an important influence in his childhood, but at 12 developed an interest in jazz and rock music. At fifteen he formed a band with school friends who had similar musical interests. Three years later, he acquired a Hammond organ. In 1963, following brief stints in art college and an apprenticeship in filmmaking, Vangelis and three school friends started a five-piece rock band The Forminx (or The Formynx), named after the Ancient Greek string instrument. The group played covers and original material largely written by Vangelis, whose stage name at this time was Vagos, with English lyrics by radio DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis. After nine singles and one Christmas EP, which found success across Europe, the group disbanded in 1966.

Career

Vangelis began his career in the 1960s as a member of the rock bands The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child; the latter's album 666 (1972) is now recognised as a progressive-psychedelic rock classic. Vangelis first settled in Paris, and gained initial recognition for his scores to the Frédéric Rossif animal documentaries L'Apocalypse des Animaux, La Fête sauvage, and Opéra sauvage. He also released his first solo albums during this time, and performed as a solo artist. In 1975, Vangelis relocated to London where he built his home recording facility named Nemo Studios and released a series of successful and influential albums for RCA Records, including: Heaven and Hell (1975), Albedo 0.39 (1976), Spiral (1977), and China (1979). From 1979 to 1986, Vangelis performed in a duo with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, releasing several albums as Jon and Vangelis. He also collaborated with Irene Papas on two albums of Greek traditional and religious songs.

Vangelis reached his commercial peak in the 1980s and 1990s. His score for Chariots of Fire (1981) won him an Academy Award for Best Original Score and the film's main theme, "Chariots of Fire – Titles" went to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, while his score for 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the film's soundtrack and main theme topped the European charts selling millions of copies. His compilation albums Themes (1989), Portraits (So Long Ago, So Clear) (1996), and studio album Voices (1995) also sold well at the time. Vangelis composed the official anthem of the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea and Japan. In his last twenty years, Vangelis collaborated with NASA and ESA on music projects Mythodea (1993), Rosetta (2016), and Juno to Jupiter (2021), his 23rd and final studio album.

Personal life and death

For a musician of his stature, very little is known about Vangelis' personal life; and he rarely gave interviews to journalists.

Vangelis's place of residence was not publicly known; instead of settling in one place or country, he chose to "travel around". He did own a house by the Acropolis of Athens which he did not renovate. Vangelis did not have children. Some interviews mention that Vangelis had been married twice; one of these marriages was to French photographer Veronique Skawinska, who produced work for some of his albums. A 1982 interview with Backstage suggests that Vangelis was previously married to Greek singer Vana Veroutis, who provided vocals for some of his records.

Vangelis was fascinated by Ancient Greek philosophy, the science and physics of music and sound, and space exploration. His daily activities mainly involved combining and playing his electronic instruments and the piano. He also enjoyed painting. His first exhibition, of 70 paintings, was held in 2003 at Almudin in Valencia, Spain. It then toured South America until the end of 2004.

Vangelis died of heart failure on 17 May 2022, at the age of 79, at a hospital in Paris. He was suffering from several health issues in the last couple of years and, according to some reports, died of COVID-19 complications.

Musical style and sensibility

The musical style of Vangelis is diverse; although he primarily used electronic music instruments, which characterize electronic music, his music has been described as a mixture of electronica, classical (his music was often symphonic), progressive rock, jazz (improvisations), ambient, avant-garde/experimental, and world. Vangelis is sometimes categorized as a new-age composer, a classification others have disputed. Vangelis himself called New-age music a style which "gave the opportunity for untalented people to make very boring music".

Instruments and equipment

As a musician who always composed and played primarily on keyboards, Vangelis relied heavily on synthesizers and other electronic approaches to music, although his first instrument was the piano. He also played and used many acoustic and folk instruments when required ) and was a keen percussionist (in additional to a standard drum kit, he performed on vibraphone, timpani, symphonic gongs and snare drums, various gamelan instruments, a tubular bell, a wind gong, a bell tree, and crotales). On several of his albums, he employed a live choir and classical soprano (usually Vana Veroutis).

Honours and legacy

In 1989 Vangelis received the Max Steiner Award. France made him a Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters in 1992 and promoted him to Commander in 2017, as well as Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2001. In 1993 he received the music award Apollo by Friends of the Athens National Opera Society. In 1995, Vangelis had a minor planet named after him (6354 Vangelis) by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; the name was proposed by the MPC's co-director, Gareth V. Williams, rather than by the object's original discoverer, Eugène Joseph Delporte, who died in 1955, long before the 1934 discovery could be confirmed by observations made in 1990. In 1996 and 1997, Vangelis received awards at the World Music Awards.

NASA conferred their Public Service Medal to Vangelis in 2003. The award is the highest honour the space agency presents to an individual not involved with the American government. Five years later, in 2008, the board of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens voted to award Vangelis an honorary doctoral degree, making him a professor emeritus at their Faculty of Primary Education. In June 2008, the American Hellenic Institute honoured Vangelis with an AHI Hellenic Heritage Achievement Award for his "exceptional artistic achievements" as a pioneer in electronic music and for his lifelong dedication to the promotion of Hellenism through the arts. On 16 September 2013, he received the honour of appearing on the Greek 80 cent postage stamp, as part of a series of six distinguished living personalities of the Greek Diaspora. In May 2018 the University of Thessaly in Vangelis's hometown of Volos awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in electrical and computer engineering.

The American Film Institute nominated Vangelis's scores for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire for their list of the 25 greatest film scores.

Discography

• Sources:

Studio albums

Soundtracks

See also

In Spanish: Vangelis para niños