Mikael Tariverdiev

Composer Mikael Tariverdiev entered the world on August 15, 1931, in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, within the U.S.S.R. His training took place at Moscow’s esteemed Gnesins Music School, where he studied with the distinguished Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian. After completing his studies there in 1957, he produced a series of vocal chamber works that reached audiences through performances by the celebrated singer Zara Dolukhanova. Film scoring soon followed, bringing his music to millions across the former Soviet Union. In total he supplied music for 132 films, among which The Seventeen Moments of Spring and Irony of Fate stand out as the most prominent. Beyond cinema, Tariverdiev created numerous vocal pieces, four ballets, four operas, violin-and-orchestra concertos, and the organ symphony Chernobyl. His achievements earned him 18 international awards, among them a prize from the American Music Academy in 1975, another from Japan’s Victor Company in 1978, and three Nika film awards—in 1991, 1994, and 1997—Russia’s counterpart to the Oscars. Mikael Tariverdiev passed away on July 25, 1995, in Sochi, Russia.