Basilaia Aleksandre

A. Basilaia

Aleksandre Basilaia (b. March 11, 1942, Tbilisi — d. October 3, 2009, Germany, buried in Tbilisi) was a composer and a pianist, People's Artist of Georgia (1987).

In 1967, he graduated from V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire. From 1963, he worked in the National Philharmonic of Georgia first as a pianist-accompanist, and from 1968 as principal composer and an art manager of the ensemble “Iveria”. He mainly worked in the pop genre.

From 1990, he was the artistic director and director of the Great Hall of the Georgian Philharmonic. He composed many popular songs: White Snowflakes (lyrics by J. Charkviani), Memories (lyrics by K. Kveidze), A Tale of Love, Youthful (lyrics by M. Fotskhishvili), Song about Georgia (lyrics by N. Malazonia) and others. He wrote musicals for “Iveria”: The Flea and the Ant (1977), The Wedding of Jays (1979 libretto by A. Gelovani), The Argonauts (1983), Schlager, Schlager (1985), The Tale of the Snowman. (1986), Pirosmani (1996). He composed a number of Georgian folk songs for the same ensemble. He gave concerts with the ensemble in the former USSR and foreign countries.