Europe celebrates 80th birthday of Georgian composer Giya Kancheli

Art and cultural centres around Europe are celebrating the 80^th birthday of Georgia’s acclaimed composer Giya Kancheli.

Today the Tbilisi-born musician’s 80^th birthday is being marked at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts with a classical music concert featuring Georgia’s National Symphony Orchestra and popular musical artists.

The performance in the Belgian venue follows last month’s opening evening in Berlin, which launched a series of events supported by Georgia’s Ministry of Culture and Monuments Protection to mark Kancheli’s July 10 birthday .

Tonight’s show will feature local artists Giorgi Tsagareli, Nato Metonidze and Liza Bagrationi while conductor Nikoloz Ratchveli will lead the National Symphony Orchestra.

The artists will perform vocal and chamber works by Kancheli, who has composed more than 37 orchestral pieces, 10 chamber music pieces and 10 choral or operas during his life.

The octogenarian’s compositions have been a part of Georgian theatre and cinema for many years.

Born in Tbilisi, Kancheli lived in Georgia until the collapse of the Soviet Union, when he moved to Berlin in 1991 then later moved to the Belgian city of Antwerp in 1995, where he became composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic.

Today Kancheli is globally recognised as a conductor however he is also a skilled pianist.