Andria Balanchivadze
Andria Balanchivadze was a Soviet, Georgian composer, teacher, and public figure. He was born in Saint Petersburg on 19 May [1 June] 1906, according to other sources possibly in 1905, into the family of the composer Meliton Balanchivadze. He began studying music in Petrograd, and from 1918 continued his education in Kutaisi at the music school founded by his father.
From 1921 to 1926 he studied at the Tiflis Conservatory, where he took composition with M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov and also studied with N. N. Tcherepnin and S. V. Barkhudaryan, while studying piano with I. S. Aisberg. During these same years he worked as a music director for productions at the Proletkult Theatre of Georgia, the Satire Theatre, the Tiflis Workers' Theatre, the Theatre of Working Youth, and other stages. In 1931 he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, studying composition with A. M. Zhitomirsky and also with V. V. Shcherbachyov, and piano with M. V. Yudina.
From 1931 to 1933 Balanchivadze served as composer and musical director of the Georgian Drama Theatre, where he had been invited by Kote Marjanishvili. Between 1941 and 1948 he was artistic director of the State Symphony Orchestra of the Georgian SSR. From 1935 he taught at the Tbilisi Conservatory, becoming professor in 1942 and head of the composition department in 1962. His students included M. Sh. Davitashvili, A. A. Kvernadze, R. I. Lagidze, Sh. E. Milorava, A. I. Chimakadze, A. V. Shaverzashvili, O. L. Tevdoradze, and N. L. Mamisashvili.
A prominent figure in Soviet Georgian musical life, Balanchivadze was a member of the Union of Composers of the Georgian SSR from its foundation in 1932. From 1953 he was its chairman; in 1956–1961 and 1968–1973 he served as first secretary of the board, and in 1973–1979 as honorary chairman. From 1957 he was honorary chairman of the Musical and Choreographic Society of the Georgian SSR, and from 1957 to 1991 he was a member of the board of the Union of Composers of the USSR. He also served as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR and of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
His creative output was broad and included stage, orchestral, vocal, chamber, film, and theatre music. His principal stage works included the unfinished opera or music drama Arsen (1935), Heart of the Mountains (Mzechabuki, 1936), Pages of Life from the ballet music Ruby Stars (1961), Mtsyri after Lermontov (1964), and Golden Wedding (1970). For orchestra he wrote five symphonies, composed in 1944, 1959, 1978, 1980, and 1989, as well as symphonic pictures including Lake Ritsa, The Battle of Krtsanisi, The Sea, and Dnieper.
Balanchivadze also composed four piano concertos, works for violin and orchestra, a bassoon concerto, and a series of works for string orchestra and piano such as Nocturne, Samana, Ballade, Dance, Elegy, Prelude, Rhapsody, Fantasy, and Romantic Pieces. His catalogue further included unaccompanied choral music, romances and songs, chamber-instrumental works, and the vocal-symphonic poem Obelisks (1985). He wrote music for more than forty theatre productions and for about twenty films, among them Prometheus, Lost Paradise, In the Black Mountains, Giorgi Saakadze, Malakhov Kurgan, and They Came Down from the Mountains.
Among his official recognitions were the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1986, People’s Artist of the USSR in 1968, two Stalin Prizes for his First Symphony and his Piano Concerto, and the Shota Rustaveli State Prize of the Georgian SSR in 1969 for chamber-orchestral musical pictures and his Fourth Piano Concerto. He died in Tbilisi on 28 April 1992 and was buried in the Didube Pantheon. He came from a notable musical family: his father was the composer Meliton Balanchivadze, and his brother was the choreographer George Balanchine.
Connections
This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.