34 Facts About Zacharia Paliashvili

Zacharia Paliashvili was the founder of the Georgian Philharmonic Society and later, the head of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

Zacharia Paliashvili was born on 16 August 1871 in Kutaisi in the family of Petre Ivanes dze Zacharia Paliashvili, an elder at the Kutaisi Georgian Catholic Church, who was said to be a model father and husband.

Zacharia Paliashvili was the third child in a family of eighteen children.

When Vano was eleven years old he was made assistant to the church organist, and the eight-year-old Zacharia Paliashvili was admitted as a chorister to the church choir.

All his life Zacharia Paliashvili had retained his youthful love for the relics of Georgia's magnificence, the ruins of the Church of Bagrat, Gelati, one of the most important centres of education, philosophy and literature in medieval Georgia and the extraordinary beauty of his home town.

Subsequently, Zacharia Paliashvili recalled Kutaisi many times, permeated, he said, with a "truly Georgian spirit".

Mizandari did not charge the family for the lessons for he was aware that Zacharia Paliashvili family was of very modest means.

The elder brother was appointed to the post of the organist and Zacharia Paliashvili was made his brother's assistant and a choirboy.

Zacharia Paliashvili graduated from the French horn class in 1895 and in the same year was admitted to the musical theory class which was conducted by Nikolai Semenovich Klenovsky, a Russian conductor, composer and teacher.

Zacharia Paliashvili graduated from the school with honours in the spring of 1899.

In 1898 Zacharia Paliashvili conducted his choir in Gyandja and had tremendous success.

Towards the end of June 1903 Zacharia Paliashvili completed his studies under Taneyev.

Zacharia Paliashvili demanded full accuracy of intonation and precision of rhythm for every pupil-member of his choir or orchestra.

Zacharia Paliashvili made such big progress in this field, that the school choir and orchestra soon began giving public concerts.

Violinist Andrei Karashvili and composer Zacharia Paliashvili Chkhikvadze worked at the same high school, where they conducted musical classes.

In 1904 Zacharia Paliashvili was invited to head the teaching of theoretical subjects at the Tbilisi Musical College.

In 1906, using a piano piece by A Karashvili as a point of departure, Paliashvili composed a profoundly patriotic song, "Samshoblo", which became popular throughout Georgia.

Some songs recorded by Zacharia Paliashvili were published in Moscow as a collection in 1910, financed by the Georgian Philharmonic Society.

Zacharia Paliashvili was a good friend of this talented daughter of the Ukrainian people and of her husband till Lesya Ukraininka's death.

In 1918, when Nikolayev left Georgia, Zacharia Paliashvili became the director of the Conservatorie.

Zacharia Paliashvili continued to conduct classes in theoretical subjects at the Conservatorie.

At the turn of the century, Zacharia Paliashvili commenced working on his first opera, Abesalom da Eteri.

Zacharia Paliashvili was inspired in this by a folk legend, "Eteriany", which had been published in the Paskunji magazine and rendered in the form of an opera libretto by Petre Mirianashvili, a teacher, writer and public personality of the time.

Zacharia Paliashvili dedicated this work to his only son Irakly, whose untimely death he had suffered deeply.

Zacharia Paliashvili always enjoyed real friendship and respect of his talent in the family of the well-known civil engineer Mikhail Buzogly and his wife.

Early in 1929 Zacharia Paliashvili was invited to Ukraine to conduct two concerts of Georgian music in Kharkov, then the capital of Ukrainian Soviet Republic.

The reception in honor of Zacharia Paliashvili was attended by distinguished representatives of Ukrainian culture and by Henri Barbusse, a French writer who was on a visit to the Soviet Union at that time.

Zacharia Paliashvili warmly thanked Zakharia Paliashvili for the aesthetic pleasure and for the discovery he had made "of a new world of musical Georgia".

Since the beginning of the 1930s, Zacharia Paliashvili was frequently unwell.

Zacharia Paliashvili estimated that Paliashvili had only several months to live.

Zacharia Paliashvili was bedridden during the summer months of 1933 and his condition continually deteriorated, all the while a new season had begun at the Tbilisi Opera House.

Several days before his death, Zacharia Paliashvili reportedly wished to hear his opera Abesalom da Eteri for the last time.

The radio was switched on and Zacharia Paliashvili strained to listen, happy at first but soon contorted with severe pain.

In 1959, the entire second floor of 10 Barnov Street, where Zacharia Paliashvili lived from 1915 to 1933, was set aside as his Home-Museum, which contains valuable materials relating to the life and work of the composer.