Balanchivadze, Meliton (Antonovich)

views updated

Balanchivadze, Meliton (Antonovich)

Balanchivadze, Meliton (Antonovich), noted Russian composer, father of George Balanchine and Andrei (Melitonovich) Balanchivadze; b. Banodzha, Dec. 24, 1862; d. Kutaisi, Nov. 21, 1937. He was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary in Tiflis, where he sang in a chorus. In 1880 he became a member of the local opera theater; in 1882 he organized a chorus and arranged Georgian folk songs. In 1889 he went to St. Petersburg, where he took voice lessons, and in 1891 entered Rimsky-Korsakov’s class in composition. In 1895 he organized a series of choral concerts of Georgian music. After the Revolution he returned to Ga., where he continued his work of ethnic research. He composed a national Georgian opera, Tamara the Treacherous (1897), and a number of songs in the manner of Georgian folk music.

Bibliography

P. Khuchua, M. B. (Tbilisi, 1964).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

More From encyclopedia.com