Iona Tuskia (full name Iona Irakliyevich Tuskia; 24 December 1901 – 8 October 1963) was a Georgian Soviet composer and teacher. He was born in Ozurgeti, then in the Russian Empire and now in Georgia, and died in Paris, France. He was buried at the Didube Pantheon.
While still a student, Tuskia founded the Society of Young Georgian Composers in 1922. He graduated from the Tiflis Conservatory in 1926, where he studied composition with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and violin with M. Vasilyev and Andrei Karashvili. In 1931 he completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory under the composition teacher Vladimir Shcherbachyov.
From 1932, Tuskia’s career was closely associated with the Tiflis Conservatory, later the Tbilisi Conservatory. He taught classical composition, became a professor in 1947, served as dean of the Faculty of Theory and Composition from 1948 to 1950, and headed the composition department from 1952 to 1961 while also serving as rector of the conservatory. His pupils included Vazha Azarashvili, Revaz Gabichvadze, Otar Gordeli, Felix Alborov, Gia Kancheli, Grigory Kokeladze, Sulkhan Nasidze, Ioseb Kechakmadze, Alexander Bukia and Lili Iashvili. He chaired the board of the Union of Composers of Georgia from 1935 to 1937.
Tuskia wrote songs, romances, incidental music for productions at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre, and film scores. His works include the String Quartet on the theme of the Georgian folk song “Chela” (1926), a Violin Sonata (1929), the symphonic pictures “Carnival” (1930), “Snake-Eater” (1937), “Kartuli” (1937) and “March-Grotesque” (1937), the opera Homeland (1939, Tbilisi), the symphonic poem At the Mausoleum (1940), a Violin Concerto (1944), a vocal-symphonic cycle on poems by Ilia Chavchavadze (1949), and the operetta Autumn Gentlemen.
His theatre music included scores for Lamara, The Break, Tetnuld, Autumn Gentlemen, Shakespeare’s Othello, The Man with a Gun, The Great Sovereign and Eagle’s Nest. He also composed music for the films Eliso (1928), Shakir (Rote-Fane) (1932), Dariko (1936) and Golden Valley (1937). Tuskia was named People’s Artist of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1962, and received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and two Orders of the Badge of Honour.