Giya Kancheli

Composer Giya Kancheli emerged into international fame in the last years of the Soviet Union, and especially after its dissolution. Kancheli's eclectic style combined avant-garde elements with aspects of traditional music from the composer's native Georgia. Giya Kancheli was born August 10, 1935, in Tbilisi, Georgia, in what was then the Transcaucasian Republic of the Soviet Union. His father was a doctor. Kancheli considered a career as a geologist before entering the Tbilisi Conservatory in 1959 and studying composition with Iona Tuskiya. After graduating, he supported him...