David Shamanauri, trumpet
Graduated from Zakaria Paliashvili Tbilisi Music School N0.2 and Tbilisi State Conservatoire (Master Degree). David is the Prize Winner of 3rd Republic Competition of young musician-performers and has received  1st Prize at the Francois Leleux Competition. He has passed the master classes of world known musicians, among them: Guido Zegers, Teo Wolters, Frits Damrow, etc.
During 1998-2002 David was musician of Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theatre Symphony Orchestra. In 1999-2011 – solo trumpet of Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra.
From 2011 David has joined the National Music Center of Georgia and is solo trumpet of Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra. At the same time he is one of the founders and the member of famous Georgian ensemble – Georgian Brass.
As a solo player David often collaborates with the various Orchestras and ensembles. Among it, he is one of the founders of the Youth Orchestra in Tbilisi, Georgia and leads master classes for children. 

Nikoloz Rachveli, conductor
Composer, Conductor, Pianist, Laureate of the Rustaveli Premium. Author of various music compositions of different styles, music for symphonic and chamber orchestras, theatre and films; also known for producing very successful recitals and anniversary concerts of Georgian composers managed and orchestrated by him.
Nikoloz Rachveli was born on May 15, 1979 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He has started to study music at the Tbilisi Mikeladze Music School. At the age of 9 he has written his first musical, which was successfully staged at school. At the age of 11 he has conducted several concerts of the State Symphony Orchestra. It was a sensation at that time and his name was enlisted in the “New Names of the Planet” (Golden Book, UNESCO).
At the age of 13, by the invitation of an outstanding German opera producer Hermann Wedekind, Nikoloz Rachveli has made his first tour in Germany, where he has performed piano and organ recitals. His childhood passions of jazz and popular music as well as admiration of professional classical polyphonies have influenced his music and intricately formed his personal style. He has continued his studies at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire composition department. During 1999-2003 he was the student of Vienna University of Music and Art; and has passed master classes with Luciano Berio, Pierre Boules and Seiji Ozawa.
In 2001 Nikoloz was granted with the State Premium for the original music for theatre performance “Late Requiem”. In 2003 he has conducted the premiere of Giya Kancheli’s “Little Imber” in Great Britain, which was recorded and released by ECM.
In 2004 Nikoloz Rachveli was withdrawn from Vienna by the Prime minister of Georgia Zurab Jvania due to the appointment at a position of a Music Director of Tbilisi Music and Drama State Theatre and Music Director of the National Music Center of Georgia. In 2007 he has combined the position of Principal Conductor of the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Giya Kancheli’s music has an important place in his creative work: the performance named “All has a remembrance to recall” with Nato Metonidze, was realized as CD and DVD; “STYX” – staged version by Robert Sturua at the Rustaveli Theatre. In 2011, Sikorski Edition published Nikoloz Rachveli’s new orchestral version of Kancheli’s “Amao Omi” (named “Ilori”) for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, commissioned and performed by Basel Symphony Orchestra and Stuttgart Chamber-Philharmonic, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. In 2013 Nikoloz Rachveli has conducted the premiere of Giya Kancheli’s “Angels of sorrow” at the Chamber Music Hall of the Berliner Philharmonie with Gidon Kremer, Giedre Dirvanauskaite, Roman Kofman, Children’s Choir Shchedryk and Kremerata Baltica.
As a conductor and pianist he has collaborated with the famous Georgian and foreign soloists, among them Monserat Cabalie, Yuri Bashmet, Vanessa Redgreiv, Jessy Norman, Seiji Ozava, Pierre Bulez, Chris Botti, STING, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Rysanov, Sergei Nakariakov, Katya Skanavi, Alexander Toradze, Khatia Buniatishvili, Lisa Batiashvili, Paata Burchuladze, Anita Rachvelishvili, Nino Machaidze, Giorgi Zagareli, etc. His repertoire includes the most important pieces of Georgian composers, as well as masterpieces of the world’s symphony and opera music.
Nikoloz Rachveli is an initiator of a historic reform in Georgia, the result of which is a right which is given to the musicians of the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra to choose their Principal Conductor and Music Director (before these positions were appointed by the Minister of Culture).

Anita Rachvelishvili, mezzo soprano
For the biography of Anita Rachvelishvili, please refer to the concert of Sunday, March 6

Georgian  Strings
For the biography of Georgian Strings, please refer to the concert of March 1

Jules Massenet (1842 1912)
Dulcinèe’s Aria from  “Don Quichotte”
Bizet- Carmen
Massenet was one of the best-respected French composers of his day, a member of the Academy and a professor of composition at the Conservatoire. In addition to his own music, he had a monumental impact on his contemporaries in France and, through his teaching, the generation that followed him.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
“Rinascerò”
“Oblivion”
“Maria de Buenos Aires”
Born March 11, 1921, Argentine Astor Piazzolla became a master of the bandoneón at a young age. He formed his own orchestra, playing tango music, but he was fascinated by both classical and jazz.
With a new group, Quinteto Nuevo Tango, he began to experiment with a fusion of all three genres. At first, the tango community rejected this new sound, but it became a hit in the 1970s.

Gia Kancheli (1935-)
”Don’t call me” from movie “Mimino”
“Yellow Leaves ” from movie “Mimino”
“Land of Flowers ”
Gia Kancheli is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he became composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic.

George Gershwin (1898 – 1937)
“Summertime” and “I loves you Porgy” from “Porgy and Bess”
George Gershwin was one of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, known for popular stage and screen numbers as well as classical compositions. Born on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, George Gershwin dropped out of school and began playing piano professionally at age 15. Within a few years, he was one of the most sought after musicians in America. A composer of jazz, opera and popular songs for stage and screen, many of his works are now standards. Gershwin died immediately following brain surgery on July 11, 1937, at the age 38.

Stephen Sondheim (1930 – )
” Ladies who lunch ” form musical “Company”
“Everybody says Don’t ” from musical “anyone can whistle ”
American lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim is known for the remarkable range of musicals he’s worked on, from ‘West Side Story’ to ‘Sweeney Todd’ to ‘Into the Woods.’ American composer Stephen Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York City. After early practice at songwriting, his knowledge of musical theater was influenced by master lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who served as a mentor. Sondheim’s contributions to West Side Story and Gypsy in the 1950s brought him recognition as a rising star of Broadway. Known for the startling complexity of his lyricism and music, his major works for the theater also include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods.

Giorgi Tsabadze
“the wheel of destiny ” from Musica “the melodies of Vera District”  is Georgian musical film directed by Giorgi Shengelaya and the music by Giorgi Tsabadze.
The plot of “the melodies of Vera District”, Pavle who is a poor cart-driver has two girls, Maro and Tamro. The girls have a dream to take classes at a ballet school, but Pavle cannot afford such a luxury. Vardo, a laundress, decides to help the little girls. For that purpose she steals cattle, firewood and a mink coat from a rich merchant’s house. She warms up Pavle’s house with the stolen firewood and pays tutorship for the girls’ ballet classes. Vardo gets caught for larceny. All the laundresses in the neighborhood go on strike in Vardo’s support. Scared chief of local police sets Vardo free and enlists the girls in the ballet school.