Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli (1935-2019) was a Georgian composer, born and died in Tbilisi, where he studied at the conservatory. He wrote symphonies, concertante works for viola and violin, opera, and music for many films. From the early 1990s much of his music was recorded for ECM New Series. Kancheli was music director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi for two decades and wrote the opera Music for the Living with its director Robert Sturua. He scored Georgiy Daneliya's Kin-dza-dza! (1986) and films such as Mimino. He wrote seven symphonies, Mourned by the Wind for viola and orchestra, Styx and Lament.