Ιάννης Ξενάκης

Iannis Xenakis (Ιάννης Ξενάκης) (May 29, 1922 Brăila - February 4, 2001 Paris) was a Greek composer and architect who spent much of his life in Paris.

He was born in Br

Iannis Xenakis (Ιάννης Ξενάκης) (May 29, 1922 Brăila - February 4, 2001 Paris) was a Greek composer and architect who spent much of his life in Paris.

He was born in Brăila, Romania to Clearchos Xenakis and Fotini Pavlou, and studied architecture and Engineering in Athens, Greece. Xenakis participated in the Greek Resistance during World War II and in the first phase of the Greek Civil War as a member of the students' company Lord Byron of ELAS (Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos, Greek Peoples Liberation Army). He received a severe face wound which resulted in the loss of eyesight in one eye. After the war, his involvement in the Greek nationalist movement in British-occupied Athens led to a death sentence. In 1947 he fled under a false passport to Paris where he worked with Le Corbusier. While his assistant, Xenakis designed the Pavillon Philips in Brussels, home of the première of Edgard Varèse's Poème Électronique at the 1958 Brussels International Fair. Later, he composed one of his most famous pieces, Metastasis based on the architecture of the Pavilion itself. It remains one of his masterpieces. Xenakis performed at many world expositions and fairs, and played annually in the Shiraz Art Festival in Iran.