Michalis Terlikkas

Michalis Terlikkas was born in the currently occupied village of Kapouti near Morphou in 1955, where he lived until the 1974 Turkish Invasion. He graduated from the First Gymnasium Morphou and then studied electronics in Athens (1976-80). Since then, he is living - and creating - in Cyprus. Singing since childhood, his life in a par excellence rural community, his contact with simple folk, his authentic aural and life experiences, all helped form a solid foundation and motive for him to busy himself systematically with the traditional songs of Cyprus (circa 1983). In the beginning of his career, he took Byzantine Music lessons under Theodoulos Kallinikos, a leading Greek Orthodox cantor and researcher and interpreter of traditional Cypriot music. Michalis also collaborated with the "Adoulotoi (unenslaved) - Shakallis" refugee folklore association and, as a singer, also appeared for a number of years with well-known traditional instrumentalists such as Yeorgios Averof, Michalis Poullos, Demetris Katsaris, Christodoulos Pipis and others. He has appeared on a number of radio and television programmes both in Cyprus and abroad, while he has also participated in many folk music festivals as well as in other international events. Since 1992, he leads the "Mousa" (muse) musical troupe, which performs solely on traditional Cypriot instruments and gives concerts both in Cyprus and abroad. He has also collaborated, and continues to do so, with many students of musicology and related fields as per their theses. He has also carried out several studies into demotic song.