Giya Kancheli in interview

Gerard McBurney interviews Giya Kancheli about his life, his music and his Imber project. The composer looks back at his influences, his life under Soviet power and how he felt when he first visited Imber. He discusses composing for silence and whether a composer’s national identity matters to his music. The interview is in five parts.

The Imber project.pdf
Silence and other music.pdf
Influences and inspiration.pdf
On being Georgian.pdf
On working in an age of Soviet power.pdf


The internationally acclaimed composer Giya Kancheli was born in 1935 in Georgia where he spent his first 56 years. He lives and works in Antwerp. Kancheli is perhaps best known for his large-scale works and symphonies. He has written seven symphonies in all. His Fourth Symphony (In Memoria di Michelangelo) was given a US premier performance in 1978 by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. The American cultural ‘freeze’ on Soviet artists swiftly followed. The spirit of glasnost in the late 1980s brought renewed recognition for Kancheli in the West and increasingly frequent performances of his work. His fervent supporters include the conductors Djansug Kakhidze and Denis Russell Davies, the viola player Kim Kashkashkian and the Kronos Quartet. Imber for Artangel is Giya Kancheli’s first major UK commission.

Gerard McBurney studied at the Moscow Conservatory, before returning to live and work in London. He has devoted much energy to composing and arranging music for the theatre, working frequently with his brother Simon McBurney of Complicite theatre company, and writing ballet and chamber opera. His concert music includes chamber and orchestral pieces, among which are several inspired by Russian themes. He is a frequent radio broadcaster and has written and researched many TV documentaries. He currently teaches musical history and analysis at London’s Royal Academy of Music.

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