Born in Athens of Cypriot origin, Kyriakos Tapakis graduated from the Experimental Music Highschool of Pallini and he studied at the Department of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. At the Music School he was taught to play the oud by Antonis Apergis, the tambouras by Periklis Papapetropoulos, folk (dimotiko) song by Theodora Varsou, Byzantine music by Yiannis Arvanitis and theory by Marios Mavroidis. At the same time he took lessons of Jazz guitar by Vassilis Rakopoulos.
He has collaborated with various important Greek musicians and singers of traditional music and entehno song, such as Domna Samiou, Sokratis Malamas, Nikos Portokaloglou and others, as well as with the groups Estoudiantina Neas Ionias, “Nefes”, «Kirmizi Gül», “Café Aman” “Lalitades of Rodopi” etc. He is a member of the group “Loxandra” and at the same time he participates in experimental-improvised music groups, such as “Βalarom Τrio” with Pantelis Stoikos and Loukas Metaxas.
Apart from the oud he plays many other related strings, such as the lute, the tzouras, the guitar, the saz, the mandola etc.
He teaches oud at the Department of Folk and Traditional Music of the Epirus Institute of Technology in Arta.