The outstanding Georgian composer Giya Kancheli died on 2 October 2019 in Tbilisi at the age of 84.
Giya Kancheli graduated from the composition class of Ilia Tuskia at the Tbilisi Conservatory, where he later worked as a lecturer. He was the music director of the Shota Rustaveli Georgian State Theater, a member of the Union of Georgian Composers and the Union of Georgian Cinematographers. In the years 1991–1995, he lived in Berlin as a scholarship holder of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He has lived in Belgium since 1995, working with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
Both Georgian and Russian music as well as contemporary music presented at the "Warsaw Autumn" festival shaped his musical style. His music was performed many times during the "Warsaw Autumn", where he met Wojciech Kilar, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Krzysztof Penderecki. The greatest fame in the USSR brought him music for the movie hits of Georgiy Daneliya and Eldar Shengelaia. He wrote many chamber and orchestral works, including seven symphonies, great vocal and instrumental works, whose world premieres took place in New York and Seattle. In the West, he was described as the creator of "new spiritual music" or "new religious music."