Yiannis Vagianos was born in Athens. After finishing his engineering studies in Greece, he moved to Rotterdam to pursue a Jazz Performance Degree. He has a Bachelor of Music degree (Jazz Contrabass) from Codarts University of the Arts. He is currently a Master's student (Jazz Contrabass), at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

During his stay in the Netherlands he has been performing all around the country with numerous projects from different styles of music ranging but not limited to traditional jazz, modern jazz, world music, classical music, Turkish music, Latin etc. On top of that, he has done several tours around the world (Denmark with Codarts Young Talent Big Band, China with CHI Quartet) and recorded with various projects and composers (the latest being for the soundrack of the short film "54").

He is also an active educator, giving private lessons for double bass, bass guitar, music theory and band coaching.