Kostas was born in Athens, Greece on June 8 1950. He began his musical studies at the age of 10 with the accordion. By the age of 16 Kostas began teaching the accordion locally in Toronto, Canada. He studied piano, and composition which included orchestration, renaissance counterpoint, baroque and romantic harmony with Dr. Anthony Dawson, John Sidgewick, Joseph Macerollo and Molly Schlater at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Kostas also studied composition and orchestration with renowned Canadian Composer Ricky Hyslop. Kostas career as a recording artist began in 1966, recording his own compositions at the RCA studio in Toronto under his own record label "Athenian Records". His first album San Skotiniazi recorded with "The Athenians of Toronto" is considered by many as one of the best Greek albums recorded outside of Greece in the Jazz/funk/rock genre. In 1976 Kostas composed the movie score for the CBC television movie "Honor Thy Father". Kostas also wrote themes for multicultural Television, such as the Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Greek shows and specials. Currently his music is featured on Greek TV programs produced by the Odyssey Television. From 1982 to 2004 Kosta was the musical director of the Orpheus Choir of Toronto.     In 1994 Kostas and his son Chris Phillips (Filippeos) founded the record label Odeon Records.  As of 2017, Odeon Records has millions of streams on Spotify, Youtube, iTunes, Amazon, Deezer and many other digital streaming services.