Giya Kancheli (Georgian: გია ყანჩელი), born August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium. August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... Coordinates: Government  - Governing Mayor Giorgi Gigi Ugulava Area  - City 372 km²  (143. ...

Kancheli is his country's most famous living composer and arguably its best-known cultural export. His music is very communicative and immediate and often has a spiritual quality, which leads some to compare him (not always helpfully) to composers such as Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. There are several instances of folk and religious inspiration in his music, notably in the opening to the Third Symphony or his more recent work Magnum Ignotum, but the effect of Georgian folk elements on his style is in spirit rather than substance, should not be overemphasised. In his symphonies, his musical language typically consists of very slow, haunting scraps of minor-mode melody against long, subdued, anguished string discords, occasionally punctuated with 'battle scenes' involving martial brass and percussion. His music post-1990 has become more refined and generally more subdued and nostalgic in character. Some commentators talk about his music in cinematic terms; one can find equivalents of dissolve (in his ubiquitous blurred tonal transitions), zoom (such as the long crescendo a third of the way into the Sixth Symphony), abrupt cuts (jumping from very loud to very quiet, as in the opening of the Fifth Symphony), and so on. Rodion Shchedrin speaks of Kancheli as "an ascetic with the temperament of a maximalist; a restrained Vesuvius". A composer is a person who writes music. ... A page from a rare 12th century Gelati Gospel depicting the Nativity from the Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi. ... Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide), (IPA: ˈɑr̺vÉ” ˈpær̺t) is an Estonian composer, often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or sacred minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki... John Tavener should not be confused with the sixteenth-century composer John Taverner. ... Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born December 16, 1932) is a Russian composer. ... The word ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askesis (practice, training or exercise). ... Maximalism is a term used in literature, art, multimedia and graphical design, and music to apply to post-minimalist movements or works, named in analogy with minimalism. ... Mount Vesuvius (Italian: Monte Vesuvio) is a volcano east of Naples, Italy, located at 40°49′N 14°26′ E. It is the only active volcano on the European mainland, although it is not currently erupting. ...

Kancheli has written seven symphonies, and what he terms a liturgy for viola and orchestra, called Mourned by the Wind. His Fourth Symphony received its American premiere, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, under Yuri Temirkanov, in January 1978, not long before the cultural freeze in the United States against Soviet culture. Glasnost allowed Kancheli to regain exposure, and he began to receive frequent commissions, as well as performances within Europe and America. His Sixth Symphony is considered by many to be his most notable work to date. His Seventh Symphony was emphatically subtitled 'Epilogue' and he is unlikely to write any more named symphonies, but he has described his orchestral work "Trauerfarbenes Land" ('The Land Stained with Mourning') as "almost an Eighth Symphony". This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A liturgy is the customary public worship of a religious group, according to their particular traditions. ... The viola (in French, alto; in German Bratsche) is a string instrument played with a bow. ... The Philadelphia Orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the Big Five symphony orchestras in the United States and usually considered among the finest in the world. ... Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov (born December 10, 1938) is a Russian conductor. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ...   (Russian: IPA: ) is a Russian word for transparency or openness. ...

Championed internationally by the likes of Dennis Russell Davies, the late Jansug Kakhidze, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the Kronos Quartet, Kancheli has seen world premieres of his works in Seattle, as well as with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur. He continues to receive regular commissions. New CDs of his recent works are regularly released, notably on the ECM label. Dennis Russell Davies (born 16 April 1944, Toledo, Ohio, USA) is an American conductor External links Biography Biography (scroll down for English translation) Categories: | ... Gidon Kremer (Latvian: ; born February 27, 1947) is a Latvian violinist and conductor. ... Yuri Bashmet (Russian: Юрий Башмет, Ukrainian: Юрій Башмет, (24 January 1953, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia), Moscow-based contemporary conductor and viola soloist. ... Kim Kashkashian (August 31, 1952 Detroit, Michigan - ) is an American violist. ... Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich KBE (Russian: Мстисла́в Леопо́льдович Ростропо́вич, Mstislav Leopoldovič Rostropovič, IPA pronunciation ), (March 27, 1927 – April 27, 2007), known to close friends as “Slava”, was a cellist and conductor. ... Kronos Quartet in 2006. ... Nickname: Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869 Government  - Type Mayor-council  - Mayor Greg Nickels (NP) Area  - City  142. ... The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States. ... Kurt Masur Conducting Mendelssohns Scottish Symphony Kurt Masur (born July 18, 1927) is a German conductor. ...

In Georgia, Kancheli's work is well-known in the theatre, from which he draws much of his musical composition. For two decades, he served as the music director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi. His opera Music for the Living, written in collaboration with Rustaveli director Robert Sturua, has been praised within Europe and the former Soviet Union since its premiere in June 1984, and in December 1999, the opera was restaged for the Deutsches National Theater in Weimar. He has written music for dozens of films, many of them well-known in the Russian-speaking world but virtually unknown outside it, such as Georgi Daneliya's sci-fi cult hit Kin-dza-dza!. Musical composition is: a piece of music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new piece of music // A piece of music exists in the form of a written composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance or recorded track). ... Robert Sturua1938- (Russian: Роберт Стуруа) World renowned theatre, film and opera director, based at the Shota Rustaveli Dramatic Theater in Tbilisi, with productions staged throghout the world. ... Year 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... The city hall Goethe and Schiller in front of the Deutsche Nationaltheater Weimar is a city in Germany. ... Georgi Daneliya Georgi Daneliya Georgi Danelia (Georgian: გიორგი დანელია, Russian: ; born Tbilisi, 25 August 1930) is a Russian film director of Georgian descent, who became known throughout the Soviet Union for his sad comedies (as he styles them), bittersweet as the life itself. ... Kin-Dza-Dza! (Кин-Дза-Дза! in Russian, pronounced Kin-Dzuh-DZUH) was a 1986 Soviet science fiction film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgi Daneliya, with a story by Georgi Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze. ...

Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra. For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ...

Selected Works

Early Works

• Concerto for orchestra (1961)
• Symphony No. 1 (1967)

Orchestral

• Symphony No. 2: Songs (1970)
• Symphony No. 3 (1973)
• Symphony No. 4 "To the Memory of Michelangelo" (1974)
• Symphony No. 5 "To the Memory of My Parents" (1977)
• Symphony No. 6 (1978-1980)
• Symphony No. 7 "Epilogue" (1986)
• Mourned by the Wind (Vom Winde Beweint), liturgy for viola and orchestra (1989)
• Rokwa (1999)
• Styx (1999)

Chamber Music

• Morning Prayers for chamber orchestra and tape (1990)
• Midday Prayers for soprano, clarinet and chamber orchestra (1990)
• Night Prayers for string quartet (1992)
• Caris Mere for soprano and viola (1994)
• Valse Boston for piano and strings (1996)
• Instead of a Tango for violin, bandoneon, piano and double bass (1996)
• In L'Istesso Tempo for piano quartet (1997)
• Sio for strings, piano and percussion (1998)

Choral/Opera

• Music for the living, opera in two acts (1982-1984)
• Bright Sorrow Requiem (to the 40th Anniversary of the Victory over Fascism) (1984)
• Evening Prayers for eight alto voices and chamber orchestra (1991)
• Psalm 23 for soprano and chamber orchestra (1993)
• Lament, concerto for violin, soprano and orchestra (1994)
• Diplipito for cello, counter-tenor and chamber orchestra (1997)
• And Farewell Goes Out Sighing... for violin, countertenor and orchestra (1999)
• Styx for viola, mixed choir and orchestra (1999)

External links and references

List of works
Entry at The Living Composers Project
Kancheli at Schrimer
Music under Soviet Rule, by Ian McDonald
The Space of Absence in the Music of Giya Kancheli, by Dylan Trigg
Giya Kancheli and the Aesthetics of Nostalgia, by Dylan Trigg
Kancheli at ECM Records
Gia Kacheli at IMDB