Makis Tsagalidis was born in West Germany in 1968. He grew up in America, where he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which he graduated in 1999 with a Professional Diploma in Jazz Piano Performance.

He specializes in improvisation in jazz, latin, funk and rock music. He took classes from the internationally renowned professor Charlie Banakos.

In 2000 he moved to Athens, where he works as a Jazz piano teacher at the Art Conservatory of Yiorgos Fakanas.