Skordalos Thanasis

Thanassis Skordalos (Greek: Θανάσης Σκορδαλός) was a musician from Crete, noted for playing the lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra.
Skordalos was born in 10 December 1920 in the village Spili of ex-province of Saint Basil, today the municipality of Lampi, in Rethymno Prefecture, Crete.
He finished grammar school in Spili. It was about the same time that he first laid his eyes on the lira. He gave his first performance in front of the Cretans in Athens - at the historical music hall “Vizantio” in Omonoia Square. His first recording was in 1946 with the famous “Spiliano Syrto” where Giannis Markogiannakis was playing the lute. In 1947 when he was 27 years old, he was positioned at the Security Services of the National Bank of Greece from where he later on retired.
During his long career, Skordalos performed in most of the countries where one can find Cretan immigrants like the United States, Australia, Canada and Africa.