Skalkottas Nikos

Nikos Skalkottas was born in Halkis in 1904 and died in Athens in 1949. Very early on he started violin lessons with his father and uncle. He continued studying at the Athens Conservatory and graduated in 1920. From 1921 to 1933 he lived in Berlin, where he first took violin lessons with Willy Hess. In 1923 he decided to give up his career as a violinist and become a composer. He studied composition with Paul Kahn, Paul Juon, Kurt Weill, Philipp Jarnach and Arnold Scho"nberg. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Skalkottas returned to Athens, where he earned a living playing in different orchestras.
Skalkottas' early works, most of which he wrote in Berlin and some of those written in Athens, are lost. The earliest of his works available to us today are dating from 1922-24 and are piano compositions as well as the orchestration of "Cretan Feast" by Dimitris Mitropoulos. Among the later works written in Berlin are the sonata for solo violin, several works for piano, chamber music and some symphonic works.