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The Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, now known all over the world, was born in Tbilisi on 10 August 1935. He died of heart failure in his hometown on 2 October 2019. From 1956 to 1963 he studied composition at the Tbilisi State Conservatory with Ilya Tuskiya, then worked as a freelance composer and also composed film and stage music. From 1970 he himself taught composition at the State Conservatory and a year later became musical director of the Rustaveli State Academic Theatre in Tbilisi. From 1984 to 1989 Kancheli became chairman of the Georgian Composers’ Association. In 1991 he moved to Berlin, where he received a DAAD scholarship, and in 1995 moved to Belgium as composer-in-residence of the Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra Antwerp. He stayed there for a long period as a freelance composer.

This biography can be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with the following credit: Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski.

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