Μάνος Χατζιδάκις (Manos Hadjidakis) (1925-1994) was a Greek composer. Hadjidakis was born on 23rd October 1925 in Xanthi, a tobacco-growing town near the northern border of Greece. His father, Yorgos Hadjidakis, a lawyer, was from Myrthio, the prefecture of Rethymnon, Crete. His mother, Aliki (Vasiliki), nee Arvanitidou, from Adrianople. At the age of four he began taking piano lessons with Madame Altounian, a teacher of Armenian descent, in Xanthi.