Manolis Alexakis was born at the village of Riza in Ierapetra (south-eastern Crete). His parents were typical farmers. When Manolis became 12 years old he insisted that his parents buy him a lyre, the trade mark of the traditional music of Crete. His parents considered Manolis request not only meaningless but also irrational. They flatly denied their son's request, in spite of his weeping with tears of rage.Full of frustration and desperation Manolis' mind contrived a farcical imitation of a lyre made from a wooden plank with strings of naked telephone wires which he played using a pomegranate's branch for bow. He started practicing regularly, but lost his patience with his product of frustration and "removed" a real lyre from his cousin's house.

For his act his parents "rewarded" him with proportionate smacking and beating. However, the seven days this magical instrument was in the hands of Manolis were more than worth any infliction he could sustain. During that short period Manolis had the opportunity to prove to himself that he could play the lyre and have fun with it at the same time.

His parents now had to admit that Manolis' request was not irrational after all and that the money they would spend on a brand new lyre for Manolis would be well spent. Six months later Manolis, barely thirteen years old, was playing the lyre like a professional.

Today Manolis Alexakis is an accomplished musician with over twenty CDs to his credit, some of them are his solo performances and the rest are collaborations with other Cretan musicians. He is a devotee of traditional Cretan music with the courage to speak his mind boldly. He performs in various traditional music-restaurant halls and has the courage to demand of those patrons that show an inkling of disrespect to Cretan music to vacate the premises

Manolis Alexakis believes that the unadulterated Cretan music raises consciousness and builds a man's character. He is very much against the streamline popular Greek music that is performed by a throng of popular "yelpers" in flashy halls known as "kennel clubs". Manolis is deeply in debt to his predecessors in art, the masters of traditional Cretan music, and hopes to become like them.

He says, "When I use the term 'legendary' to qualify one of those masters of Cretan music, I do not only mean the virtuosos in one musical instrument or another. I also mean those who exert significant efforts to emulate those masters. Now, that's something. When I first started out as a young aspiring artist, my prime goal was to make my own contribution to the history of Cretan music, however, insignificant."