Charis Ioannou

Charis Ioannou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1976. In 1997 he enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied saxophone and jazz composition.

Charis won the Woodwind Achievement Award in his senior year in Boston, and in 2001, after graduation, he moved to New York City where he stayed for three years. While in New York, Charis earned his master’s degree in performance from New York University and has since performed and taught throughout the state.

In 2005 Charis returned to Cyprus, where he collaborated with various musicians and performed in major clubs and festivals on the island, as well as in various locations around the world, including Greece, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia, Spain, England, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Lebanon, Germany, Senegal and in the United States.

Charis has also collaborated with the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus in a bi-communal jazz program called Jazz Futures, with which he performed throughout Cyprus with Ari Roland and Chris Byars’ band for 6 years from 2007-2013.

In 2015 he led BopCy, a quartet with all Cypriot musicians, winning 2nd place in the first Greek jazz competition held in Athens that year and appeared in Syros as part of the 2015 International Jazz Day.

He has given numerous workshops in Cyprus, Lebanon, Greece and Italy. Charis currently teaches saxophone and jazz language at the University of Nicosia and continues to perform and record as a leader and sideman in Cyprus and abroad. He is a supporter of Hemke reeds manufactured by D’Addario Woodwinds.