The public funeral of Gia Kancheli, the well-known Georgian composer is ongoing at Rustaveli Theater. The composer will be buried at Didube Pantheon of Public Figures today.

Gia Kancheli, the well-known Georgian composer died at the age of 84 on October 2.

Kancheli graduated from the Tbilisi State University in 1959 specializing in Geology. He then continued studies at Tbilisi State Conservatoire. For two decades, he served as the music director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi. He composed an opera Music for the Living, in collaboration with Rustaveli director Robert Sturua, and in December 1999, the opera was restaged for the Deutsches National Theater in Weimar.

Kancheli is worldwide known for his music for Georgian films and symphonies. He wrote music for films: 1974 — Night visit (with Revaz Lagidze), 1974 — Magic egg (Animated film), 1975 — Caucasian prisoner, 1975 — Caucasian romance, 1977 — Stepmother of Samanishvili (with Jansug Kakhidze), 1977 — Mimino, 1978 — Some interviews on personal matters, 1978 — Khanuma, 1978 — Caucasian Story, 1979 — Dumas in Caucasia, Mimino, Extraordinary Exhibition, etc.

Kancheli composed orchestral, chamber, choral/opera music. Early works include Concerto for Orchestra (1961), Woodwind Quintet (1961), Largo and Allegro (1963), Symphony No. 1 (1967).

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.