αθάνατος

Chrisanthos Theodoridis was born in 1934 in Inoi, Kozani from Pontian parents that were descended from the village Perizkiatzit, in Kars of the Caucasus region. After finishing elementary school, he attended the Valtadorio Gymnasium of Kozani, and after the explosive debut of the Civil War he and his family move to Pireas, in the neighborhood of Drapetsona. He transferred to the First Model Gymnasium of Pireas, which today is called the Ionidios Model School of Pireas. He graduated in 1954. In one year, he served his army tenure and was discharged in 1957.

He first began singing as a student in high school in 1951. He sang at the radio stations of Athens with the ensembles of Nikos Papavramidis and Nikos Spanidis from 1951 through 1958. He has collaborated with nearly all the Pontian societies of Athens in all sorts of cultural events. In 1959 he moves to Thessaloniki where he remains until 1975. There he performs together with the veteran and unrepeatable lyra player Gogos Petridis (Chrisanthos had given him the name “the ‘Patriarch’ of the Pontian lyra”). Chrisanthos together with Gogos, for the first time ever, performs Pontian music in night clubs in Greece, with premiers in Kalamaria and Polihni. He becomes a member of major Pontian societies such as Efxinos Leshi and Faros Pontion, performing at radio programs in Thessaloniki. He collaborated for 13 years with the folklorist Stathis Efstathiadis in radio programming and in Pontian theatrical presentations all over northern Greece.

The Enosis Pontion Society of Polihni, in one of their most prominent events, on November 5, 1993, decided to publicly honor Chrisanthos with a gold medal and an honorary diploma at the club Mithrio, acknowledging his huge contribution to Pontian Hellenism and Pontian musical heritage. In addition to Gogos Petridis with whom he collaborated for 18 years, he had performed together with various lyra players such as Georgoulis Kougioumtzidis, Dimitris Kougioumtzidis, Giorgoulis Kousidis, Panagiotis Aslanidis, Nikos Ioannidis, the late Kostikas Tsakalidis, Mihalis Kaliontzidis, Kostakis Petridis (the son of Gogos), Andreas Kougioumtzidis (the son of Georgoulis), Christos Tsenekidis, Thodoros Veriotis, and Dimitris Piperidis.

In addition to Pontian music, Chrisanthos has collaborated with the composer Christodoulos Halaris from 1973 singing cultural Greek music. In 1975 he appears at the Aposperida Club in Athens with Nikos Xilouris, Mariza Koch and the composer Christodoulos Halaris, singing Pontian songs and songs composed by Halaris. In 1976 he participates in concerts with Halaris and Xilouris all over Greece. From 1979-1980 he performs the works “Perses” and “Romanos o Melodos”, among others, in concerts by Halaris at Lycabettus Theatre. In 1980 together with Halaris he tours France performing composed works and Pontian songs. In 1981 he performs at the University of Lille in France. In February 1983 he travels to West Germany (Bonn, Dusseldorf) and to Geneva Switzerland for performances. In May 1983 in Marseilles he performs the work of Halaris “Pathi Apokrifa” with a poetic renditioning by G. Kakoulidis.

Among some of his performances abroad:

1964 West Germany
1971 USA, Canada
1972 West Germany
1974 Australia
1979 Sweden
1980-83 France, West Germany, Switzerland
1984 Canada, USA
1985 West Germany, Sweden
1988 Germany
1990 Canada, USA
1991-92 Germany

He has appeared on television programs with Pontian songs and music of Hristodoulos Halaris. His first recording was made in 1954, a 78 rpm recording. He has recorded 30 45-rpm recordings and 10 LP albums with Pontian songs.

Chrisanthos Theodoridis passed away on March 30, 2005 at the age of 71, a few days after his last performance in Thessaloniki.