Nicolas Economou was born in Nicosia in 1953. He started taking piano lessons at the age of five. In 1964 he was accepted at the Special School of Music of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and he came to international attention at the 1969 Tchaikovsky Competition, when he was 16. In 1972, he moved to Düsseldorf, before settling in Munich, where he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, piano under Ludwig Hoffmann and composition under Wilhelm Killmayer. He performed and recorded solo, with orchestras and other famous performers and composers such as Martha Argerich, Sviatoslav Richter and Chick Corea.

He composed for piano, for small ensembles, symphonic music and film music and as a conductor he directed many distinguished orchestras.

In 1982 he recorded a duet album with jazz pianist Chick Corea.

He died in a car accident in Cyprus in 1993.