Vangelis Biography

Vangelis was a Greek composer best known for his electronic film scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner.

Something of a child prodigy on piano, Vangelis began composing at an early age and was a teenager when he discovered the electronic organ. By the late 1960s, he was working in Paris composing music for television documentaries and performing in a prog-rock band.

He moved to London in 1974 and began composing classically-based scores for the synthesizer. Known for sweeping, dramatic melodies, he had his biggest success with the soundtrack to the film Chariots of Fire, and he won an Oscar in 1982.

During the 1980s and ’90s he composed the music for several films, often blending synthesizers with orchestras. He did music for Missing (1982), Blade Runner (1982, directed by Ridley Scott), The Bounty (1984), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987, also directed by Scott), as well as for the mini-series Cosmos (1980, hosted by Carl Sagan).

Vangelis performed all over the world and released dozens of albums, including Spiral (1977), Direct (1988), Page of Life (1991, one of many collaborations with former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson), 1492, Conquest of Paradise (1992, soundtrack to the 1992 Ridley Scott film), El Greco (1998) and Rosetta (2016).