Events

*** Young Tbilisi State Conservatoire student Guranda Gabelaia won the first prize at the 8th International Piano Competition at Padua, Italy on July 11. She played an Otar Tatishvili composition from the musical cycle The Last Romantic.

*** The Liberty Theatre celebrated the 40th birthday of the late actor and poet Niko Gomelauri on July 12. With photo and video materials from Niko’s life, his friends and admirers retold stories about the actor with smiles and tears.
Nina Chodrishvili, his wife, presented a book of Niko’s interviews which the young project managers had now published unabridged. The book, called “Simply Said” is based on interviews with Niko in different media sources between 1998 till 2010 but has the form of an autobiography because the book is divided into 15 topics [love, life, parents, work, etc] and Niko expresses his concern about each of them.

*** The State Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema introduced to the public the previously unknown signature of famous Georgian king Davit the Builder (1073-1125) on July 13. After studying the archive of academician Niko Mari, who studied Georgian history and culture, Davit’s photo with an unknown old Georgian script was discovered. Scientists compared the script with the signatures of the members of the Bagrationi dynasty and Professor Valeri Silogava finally ascertained the truth.

*** Georgian singer Davit Gomarteli held a solo concert at the Philharmonic Hall on July 13. Encouraged by his colleagues, Gomarteli performed his old and new songs in an ethno jazz style, introducing folklore songs in a modern way, in his new project 'Georgian Ethno Code'.

*** On July 14 the premiere of the film 'Expectation' about IDPs was introduced to the public at Cinema Rustaveli. People affected by the wars in 1991 and 2008 were the main characters of the film, which was produced by Gia Diasamidze and Zaza Korinteli with the financial support of the European Union.

*** The Art Gene folk festival continues in Tbilisi. On July 18 Club 33a presented an exhibition of Goderdzi Otarashvili’s art as part of the festival, which moved to the Open Air Museum on July 20. Here exhibitions of folk traditions were offered to visitors accompanied by concerts by various Georgian song and dance companies.

*** The Rustaveli Theatre Troupe is presenting the plays “Murder of Gonzalo” and “The Guest” in Batumi from July 19.

*** Famous Italian maestro Gianluca Marciano conducted the concert version of Atila with the troupe of Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre at the National Musical Centre on July 19. He will follow this with Rigoletto on July 25.

*** Songs by the Rustavi Georgian Song and Dance Company were aired by the BBC during the Bath Abbey festival in July. The company aroused great interest among the English public throughout the festival and even received an invitation from a BBC radio channel.

*** Bali's birthday party

The Georgian mobile operator Bali celebrated its 5th anniversary at Rose Revolution Square on July 18. Surrounded by small children with their parents and adults with their friends, Bali Boy – the famous cartoon character who is the face of Magticom’s youth brand, spent around four hours there. David Lee, General Director of Magticom, congratulated the brand on the anniversary and wished all Bali users great success.

The concert was opened by young singers from Ana-Bana, the musical project on Rustavi 2, who demonstrated wonderful gifts in singing, acting and performing funny and cheering songs both in Georgian and English. They were followed by Mgzavrebi (Passengers), a group of experienced but young musicians whose popularity has increased with their ages. The group members fired up the audience with their traditional compositions which were both lyrical and optimistic – the cheerful public danced and sang themselves in response.

The open air party closed with colourful fireworks. Bali Boy seemed to be really happy – the Magticom representatives reminded the public of all the innovations created specially for them when using Bali services and promised to offer more projects and fun for their users.