Charis Ioannou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1976. In 1997 he was enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied saxophone performance and Jazz composition. After graduation, he moved to New York where he stayed for three years. While in New York, he earned his Master’s degree in performance from the New York University and in the meantime performed and taught around the state.

In 2005 he moved back to Cyprus and started collaborating with various musicians and appearing in all the major clubs and festivals around Cyprus as well as in various venues around the world including performances in Greece, Spain, England, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, U.S.A, etc.

In 2015 he led the quartet BopCy and later with drummer Ioannis Vafeas he formed the Ioannou/Vafeas Quartet, with which he released the album “Bridge of Locks” in 2017.

He is teaching the saxophone and the jazz idiom at The University of Nicosia and continuing to perform and record as a leader as well as a sideman in Cyprus and abroad.