Eka Chabashvili Biography

Associate Professor/Composer

Georgian Composer and Painter, Artistic researcher, Doctor of Music Art, and associate professor of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Experimental theatre of instruments “SENSUS” was founded on her initiative in 2000; She is the organizer of the festival “Woman and Music”. At the initiative of Eka Chabashvili, in collaboration with Maka Virsaladze, “Centre of Contemporary Music” have been established in 2013.
As a researcher E. Chabashvili studies the problem of visual and musical phenomena’s syncretism in art and interactive processes in music; she is the author of several new genres, (like as micro ballet, micro oratory, symphony-exhibition, micro-opera/exhibition, nano-opera, hologram theatre), multi-topophonic composition technique and atomic-nuclear musical system, to which a number of publications in Georgian and other languages are dedicated. She also developed a concept of a new musical instrument KHMA (combination of wind, string, and percussive instruments) and ModEkAl (modified piano). Furthermore, the composer is actively engaged in cinema and theatre (ballet) music genres. She has participated in various international festivals and scientific conferences; and has been invited to conduct master classes on composition at Georgian, USA and European Universities. She receives commissions from Georgian and foreign performers.
Eka chabashvili has participated in a number of international festivals such as Ice fest 2004 (Chicago): Polyphonic Voices, Music by Emerging Composers from Around the World, where Chabashvili’s “Polyphonic Verses” was selected the symbol of the Festival; the work “Kopala” for flute, oboe, clarinet, piano and electronic music composed as ordered by the festival was performed at ISCM World Music Days Luzern (Switzerland) (2004); “Frescos” for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion was performed at Icebreaker III: The Caucasus International Festival and Symposium in Settle (2006); her electronic composition “Drought” was performed at the OPEN-SIGNAL Granoff Center for the Creative Arts of the Brown University, Providence (USA, 2014).

Her well-known piano piece “Panorama” was performed at Carnegie Hall in NY, in the cities of USA, Asian and European countries, the work has been released on CD as performed by American pianist Kathryn Woodard, Georgian pianist Nino Jvania and many other pianists. E.Chabashvili’s main compositions are ballets “Radiance” and “Dancing with death”; opera/exhibition “Wandering Wishes” by F.Kafka’s novellas; “Fury and sound” for piano and holographic theatre based on W.Faulkner novel (was performed by N.Jvania at Harvard University, USA) and other works for instrumental theatre “Sensus”; chamber compositions for different musical instruments and ensembles, such as micro oratorio “Chants of Regret” for organ (awarded special prize at Alkmaar International Competition for Composers), which was performed on the historical organ in Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk; “Cleft in the sky” was commissioned and performed at Art Festival in Miami (2013); “Walk in Silence” (2018) and “Four Elements” (2017) was commissioned and performed by Austrian trio “Immersio”; Works for orchestra and choirs: “Axiom”, “Mosaic”, “Apocalypses” performed by Tbilisi Symphony orchestra – conductor R.Takidze (1996), “Somnus” and “Panacea” was commissioned and performed by chamber orchestra “Tbilisi Camerata” – Conductor G.Shilakadze (2015-16), “Proverbs” was performed by chamber orchestra “Georgian Sinfonietta”- conductor D.Kintsurashvili (2010), “Requiem of the XXI century for the Innocent Victims” was performed by Georgian State Opera orchestra and choir – conductor D.Kintsurashvili (2016),”Chants of Mother of God” was performed at the Chorus Festival by ensemble “Iberisi” (cond. D.Kintsurashvili) in Île Saint-Louis, Paris, France (2012); “Beer Cantata” based on I.S.Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” performed by Batumi symphony orchestra – conductor G.Apriamashvil (2013); musical novellas “Seven Wonders of World” was performed by conductor L.Kvetenadze (2003); Symphonic trilogy “Celestial (Cosmos), earthly (Ini&Iani) and heavenly(Eternity) Bodies” – conductors G.Apriamashvili and D.Kinsturashvili (2008-10); “Chorale” for choir (was awarded MDR-Rundfunkchor Prize in Germany at Leipzig International Competition of Choral Music Composers, conductor R.Blank); Multimedia works: “Idea of God – Spheres” (was performed in Perigueux, France), micro ballet for fingers “On the Way”, “Portraits” and “Dance of Hieroglyphs” was performed by Tbilisi State Consertvatoire’s contemporary music ensemble “TMA”, “Sounds and colors of seven sense and true” was commissioned and performed by ensemble “Georgia Modern”(2017), “Amen of four horseman of the Apocalypse”(2016) and “From the Beginning was…War and Peace”(2012) was commissioned and performed by piano duet “Jvaniasisters”, “Prism” was commissioned and performed at Texas University in 2007; “Bio Rhythms” composed for project “K. Stockhausen and female composers” and was performed at “Spectrum” in New York (2014); contemporary round-dance for interactive experimental project symphony/exhibition “KHMA” for 6 installations and instrument/sculpture (2018); “Buzzing in Zoom” was performed by ensemble “TMA” and audio-visual Nano-opera “Pandora” for internet (2020); “COVID-19 Anamnesis” for piano and ModEkAl was performed at Delft Chamber Music Festival (Netherlands) and at III conferences on artistic research in music of the Pyrenees (Pucherda, Spain) in 2021 by pianists Nino Jvania and Tamar Zhvania, as well as Artistic research project outcome performance “Has piano music come to an end?” was performed by them at Grand hall of Tbilisi State Conservatoire, and CARPA7 (Helsinki, Finland) in 2021 , etc.

According to Eka: “The Georgian Composers Live at the Cross of Space and Time…” and really, her creation is full of European and non-European cultural musical traditions. In her works, one comes across meditative dramaturgy and static kind of composition. She pays attention to how to develop the musical materials inside different psycho-times by improvisational-variation development of musical structures in the several levels of space. Her music’s rich color-sounding palette very often appears as visual associations, which depends on the connection of her musical thinking with visual sources. Because of this fact, Eka often mentions her desire during interviews -“My wish is to paint music and vice versa, make a painting heard in music.” It is not accidental that Eka Chabashvili’s works grasped the attention of the great German composer K.Stockhausen who noted that her compositional technique is original and interesting.

e-mail: eka.chabashvili@tsc.edu.ge