Ensemble “Rustavi” Administration Press Release, January 4th, 2020
Don’t miss!..
Connecting with the 50th anniversary of the Ensemble “Rustavi”, there has been published a very important anthology – “400 Georgian Folk Songs”.
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MANANA DOIJASHVILI
Pianist
Anzor Erkomaishvili is an absolutely exceptional phenomenon in our reality. It is difficult to list all the deeds this single person managed to perform in order to glorify, immortalize the culture of his country. One would need several lives to do the job he has done.
Highly gifted, top rank professional, ardent, goodhearted, fallen in love with his native folklore, persistent, full of personal charm. He was quite young when in 1965 he gathered his friends who were interested in folk music and founded the Ensemble “Rustavi” which was soon enriched by the dancers’ ensemble of Pridon Sulaberidze. As a result, we acquired the collective that became the visiting card of our country. The “Rustavi” played a very important role in the revival of our country’s folklore, its maintenance, development, popularization and international recognition. It was, and to the present day remains a good sample for the future generations. It goes without saying that the most important, biggest endowment in the success of the “Rustavi” belongs to Anzor Erkomaishvili.
Anzor’s many-sided performance and wide range of interests are amazing. To the present day, the Boys’ Folklore Ensemble “Martve” that was founded by him represents the best example of musical-esthetic upbringing of Georgian children. The work of the ensemble gained truly state significance.
The rarest samples and pieces of Georgian folk songs that were recorded on gramophone records at the beginning of the twentieth century and discovered by Anzor in the archives of different countries, are invaluable.
In the archives of Moscow, London, Prague he found the trace of the lost records of outstanding Georgian singers Vano Sarajishvili and Sandro Inashvili – “matrices matrix” of the songs and after a long and hard work, we got back the recordings made a century ago – so precious voices for every Georgian.
In 2002, at Tbilisi Music Conservatory, through immediate support and participation of Anzor Erkomaishvili, there was founded International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony, which is held once every two years. There is no doubt, without his enthusiasm and contacts, this significant international forum would not have the scale and charm that it has today. Fans of the Georgian song permanently arrive at the symposium from foreign countries. Most of them love the Georgian folk song due to Anzor Erkomaishvili and his followers as they did introduce and teach them the Georgian song. It is impossible to listen to the Georgian songs performed by the ensembles of different nationalities with big love and stay deeply untouched.
Over time, Anzor Erkomaishvili’s creative activity has not weakened even at least. He is, and will always be the person, who became a legend and pride of the Georgian nation in his life.
Tbilisi. 2015