Costas Cacoyannis: Cyprus’s One-Man Orchestra

Costas Cacoyannis is one of Cyprus’s most prolific composers – turn on the TV or head to the cinema on the Mediterranean island and there’s a good chance you’ll hear his music. Add to that his compositions for ballet, theatre, Hollywood soundtracks, and the more than 25 albums he has released and you get a sense of the scale of his creativity. He lives and works from his studio high up in the Troodos Mountains in central Cyprus and it’s there that the BBC’s Karl Bos went to meet Costas in 2018, as he prepared for a major performance of his music that June - his biggest live concert in over 18 years - at the Maison de l'UNESCO in Paris. Follow Costas on a walk through a nearby forest as he derives inspiration from nature, then to a rehearsal in Limassol with his choir, as he guides them on how to express and perform his music as the concert quickly approaches.