Eleni Karaindrou was born in Teichio, a small mountain village in Central Greece. She studied piano and music theory at the Hellenic Conservatory (Ellinikon Odeion) and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Athens University. She studied Ethnomusicology in Sorbonne and orchestration in Scuola Cantorum, in Paris, on a scholarship from the French government. From 1975 to 1982 she was one of the executives of ERT’s Third Program, working with composer Manos Hatzidakis.
Since 1975 she has written music for more than forty theatre productions, twenty feature films, for television and radio programs, working with top Greek and foreign directors.
More specifically, in the theatre: she collaborated with directors Jules Dassin, Lefteris Voyatzis, Antonis Antypas, Maya Lyberopoulou, Vassilis Papavassiliou, Kostas Bakas, Spyros Evangelatos, et al. on productions at the National Theatre, Skini and Nea Skini theatres, Aplo Theatro, Epochi theatre, Amphitheatro, etc., of plays by Shakespeare, Goldoni, Griboyedof, Turgenief, Chekhof, Gorki, O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Pinter, Mammet, Orton, Aristophanes, Hourmouzis, Loula Anagnostaki, G.Dialegmenos, Euripides etc.
At the cinema: Since 1983 she has been a permanent collaborator with Theo Angelopoulos, composing music for his films Voyage to Cythera, The beekeeper, Landscape in the Mist, The Suspended Step of the Stork, Ulysses’ Gaze and the Cannes Festival Golden Palm award-winning film, Eternity and a Day. She has also composed music for films by Dimitris Mavrikios (Polemonta), Takis Kanelopoulos (The chronicle of a Sunday), Tonia Marketaki (The price of love), Christoforos Christofis (Wandering / Rosa), Lefteris Xanthopoulos (Happy homecoming, comrade), Giorgos Koras (The deserter) Margarethe von Trotta (L’ Africana), etc.