Michalis Terlikkas – a well-known performer and researcher of Cypriot traditional music – is CMA’s Main Researcher on the Recording and Digitization of Michalis Terlikkas’s Personal Archive project, funded by the Deputy Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.
Terlikkas was born in the village of Kapouti near Morphou in 1955, where he lived until the 1974 Turkish invasion. He graduated from the First Gymnasium of Morphou and then studied electronics in Athens (1976–80). Since then, he has been living and creating in Cyprus.
Terlikkas has been singing since childhood. His life in a primarily rural community, his contact with people living in villages before the war, 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.
In 1979, while still a student, Terlikkas met the late poet and singer Andreas Mappouras. The two recorded three cassette tapes together, featuring Cypriot oral improvised couplets (tsiattista), produced by Lambrophone label. Between 1981 and 1983 Terlikkas took lessons in Byzantine ecclesiastical chant under Theodoulos Kallinikos, a leading Greek Orthodox cantor, collector and interpreter of Cypriot traditional music.
In 1983 Terlikkas joined the Adoulotoi–Shakallis refugee folk association as a singer. He remained with the group for a number of years, and was accompanied by well-known folk instrumentalists such as Georgios Averof, Michalis Poullos, Demetris Katsaris, Christodoulos Pipis, Neophytos Roussos and others. Around 1985 he began giving concerts of Cypriot traditional music as a solo singer with some of the musicians named above. At the same time, inspired by Theodoulos Kallinikos, Terlikkas began his own research into Cypriot traditional music, by recording – first on audio and later on film too – elderly people from all over the free areas of Cyprus. Working for several years, he slowly managed to accumulate an important personal archive of Cypriot music.
His experience of collecting as well as the collected material itself, his memories of older, authentic performers in the area where he grew up, and the performances of older, accomplished performers of Cypriot traditional music are the source from which he draws his own performing style.
Since 1990, Terlikkas has led the Mousa music troupe, which uses solely traditional Cypriot instruments and gives concerts both in Cyprus and abroad. Terlikkas has appeared on a number of radio and television programmes in Cyprus and abroad, while he has also taken part in many folk music festivals and other international events. He has further participated as a speaker in various conferences, both in Cyprus and abroad.
In August 2017, I.G.F. – World Folklore Union awarded Terlikkas the I.G.F GOLD STAR EX OSCAR for his work in promoting the values of traditional folk culture on an international level.
He has been collaborating with Nicoletta Demetriou since 1992, both as a singer and as a researcher. In 2022, Terlikkas became CMS’s first external collaborator/researcher.
For more on Terlikkas, his recordings and publications, please see here.
