Solon Michaelides was born on 12^th November 1905 in Nicosia, Cyprus and died on 10^th September 1979 in Athens, Greece.

Upon graduating from high school he was qualified and worked as an elementary school teacher.

Between 1927and 1930 he studied piano, composition and conducting at the Trinity College of Music in London.

1930 – 1934 he studied in Paris at the “École Normale de Musique”, with Nadia Boulanger (harmony counterpoint and fugue), R. Thiberger, Pierre Maire and A. Cortot (Piano). He finally studied composition under Guy de Lioncourt and conducting with Marcel Labey at the “Scola Cantorum”.

In 1934 he founded and directed the Conservatory of Limassol, and in 1935 he founded and directed the Limassol Concert Association as well as the Symphony Orchestra of Cyprus, positions he held until 1956.

From 1941 to 1956 he worked as  music teacher at Lanition High School in Limassol.

In 1957, invited by the Greek Ministry of Education, he became the director of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, teaching harmony, counterpoint, the art of fugue, composition and conducting.  He remained director of SCT until 1970.

In 1959 he founded the Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra and was appointed and served as orchestra´s general director and principal conductor until his retirement in 1970.

He was repeatedly invited to conduct in Europe, USA and Asia.

From 1946 onwards, he has been as a guest collaborator at the BBC as well as guest lecturer at numerous American Universities and at conferences across Europe (Venice, Vienna, London, Oslo, Brussels, etc) and New York.  He also contributed to the fifth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music (1954).

Solon Michaelides compositions have received worldwide recognition and his works have been performed in Greece, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, USA and across Asia.

His also published numerus articles in Greek and international journals.

Between 1948 and 1968 he was a member of the International Folk Music Council in London.  He was a jury member at many international competitions such as Arrezo, Bolzano, and Varna, Montreux and Llangollen and adjudicator at various music festivals in Europe.

In 1952 he was awarded the title of the Honorary Fellow of the “Trinity College of Music” in London and was also honoured by the American Ethnomusicology Company in 1996.

In 1965 he was honoured by the Greek State with the medal of the commander of the Greek Order of “Phoenix”.

In 1974 the Academy of Athens awarded him two more prizes, in 1974 for his overall contribution to music and in 1977 for his encyclopaedia “The Music of Ancient Greece”.

Solon Michaelides is a composer whose style is firmly based on Hellenic tradition with the use of ancient Greek modes and elements of folk and Byzantine music.  One can also detect aspects from the school of French impressionism in his music. His compositions are characterised, in his own words by “pureness and clarity both in concept and emotion”.