Born in 1945 in Athens, in 1963 he settled in Paris where he took up musical studies. His early compositions, such as Antistixis for three string quartets (1967), Anakroussis for seven instruments (1967) and Bis for two orchestras (1968), were influenced by the serial technique and the innovations of Xenakis. In the search for his own expressive devices, Aperghis became interested in the music of John Cage and Mauricio Kagel. Soon he moved close to instrumental theatre.
His first attempt in this genre was La Tragique histoire du nécromancien Hiéronimo et de son miroir, produced in 1971 at the Festival in Avignon. In later years he wrote for the same festival the oratorio Vesper and operas Pandaemonium and Histoire de loups. In 1976 he founded atem - Atelier Théâtre et Musique (Instrumental Theatre Laboratory), which shaped his musical career to a decisive degree. Until 1995 he prepared over 20 productions for atem including La bouteille à la mer, Conversations, Enumerations, Jojo and H, litanie musicale et égalitaire.
Working with a team of musicians and actors, Aperghis draws inspiration from day-to-day social ritual. This has a particular impact on the poetic level of his pieces, with their stress on the absurd and the satirical. All elements of artistic expression - voice, instrumental performance, gesture and stage design - are assigned equal importance. His shows are often given their final shape at the rehearsal stage.
His output also includes solo, chamber and orchestral pieces, in which he incorporates elements of the theatre, notably gesture.
His operas constitute a synthesis of Aperghis's music. In them, the text is the dominant element, while voice is the main expressive device.

Selected works (since 1980): Graffitis for percussionist (1980), Quatre récitations for cello (1980), Liebestod, opera (based on B. Brentano's letters to Goethe; 1981), L'Echarpe rouge, opera (after A. Badiou; 1984), Le Coup de foudre for percussion (1985), Conversations (1985), Enumerations (1988), Triangle carré for string quartet and percussion trio (1989), Jojo, instrumental theatre (1990), Déclamations for baritone, bass clarinet and orchestra (1990), H, litanie musicale et égalitaire, stage music (1992), Sextet for Five Female Voices and Cello (1993), L'Adieu for contralto and large orchestra (1994), Cello Sonata (1994), Tristes tropiques, opera (libretto by C. Clément after C. Lévi-Strauss; 1997), Die Hamletmaschine - oratorio for soloists, choir, percussion and instrumental ensemble (2000), Machinations, musical spectacle for four women and computer (2000), Petrrohl for six voices (2001).

The piece Graffitis demonstrates the composer's fascination with the relationship between music, words and theatrical gesture. It was written for Gaston Silvestre. It was created as a result of an artistic transposition of day-to-day ritual to the world of poetry, the absurd and the satirical. It exists in a concert version and as a musical spectacle, Le Vellétaire. Aperghis assigns equal importance to voice, instrumental sound, text (semantic and asemantic) and acting, by-passing conventions and blending all these devices in a notation which determines the force of expression. Rhythmically complex, the work is an eruption of energy achieved by the use of extreme registers, dynamic levels as well as a virtuoso texture - the combination of voice, four groups of percussion instruments, whispering, speech, sounds and murmurs. The composer opens broad horizons before the performer giving him an opportunity to display his vitality and interpretative ease, and before the listener, whose ears and eyes are both stimulated. (Duration: 20 min.)