Hrisanthos

Chrisanthos Theodoridis was born in 1934 in Inoi, Kozani from Pontian parents that were descended from the village Perizkiatzit, in Kars of the Caucasus region. After finishing elementary school, he attended the Valtadorio Gymnasium of Kozani, and after the explosive debut of the Civil War he and his family move to Pireas, in the neighborhood of Drapetsona. He transferred to the First Model Gymnasium of Pireas, which today is called the Ionidios Model School of Pireas. He graduated in 1954. In one year, he served his army tenure and was discharged in 1957.

He first began singing as a student in high school in 1951. He sang at the radio stations of Athens with the ensembles of Nikos Papavramidis and Nikos Spanidis from 1951 through 1958. He has collaborated with nearly all the Pontian societies of Athens in all sorts of cultural events. In 1959 he moves to Thessaloniki where he remains until 1975. There he performs together with the veteran and unrepeatable lyra player Gogos Petridis (Chrisanthos had given him the name “the ‘Patriarch’ of the Pontian lyra”).