Background
Balanchivadze, Meliton was born on December 24, 1862 in a village near Tskhaltubo, Georgia, United States.
Balanchivadze, Meliton was born on December 24, 1862 in a village near Tskhaltubo, Georgia, United States.
Studied singing under V.Aushev. Studied at the Petersburg Conservatory from 1889. Studied singing under V.Aushev. Studied at the Petersburg Conservatory from 1889. Pupil of N. Rimskii-Korsakov and I. Iogansen.
Born in the village of Banoja and trained at the seminaries of Kutaisi and Tbilisi, Balanchivadze began an operatic career at the Tbilisi Opera House in 1880. In 1882, he founded a Georgian folk ensemble and organized the first ever folk concert in Tbilisi in the next year. From 1883 to 1886, he travelled to various parts of Georgia, collecting folk songs and training folk choirs.
Between 1895 and 1917, he toured Russia giving concerts of Georgian folk music
After the 1917 Bolshevik coup, he returned to his native Georgia, where he taught and composed. He authored the first original Georgian opera, Tamar the Wily, later renamed into Darejan the Wily (თამარ ცბიერი, დარეჯან ცბიერი)—first performed by Russian artists at the Hall of the Russian Nobility Council in 1897 — as well as numerous choral works, as mass, and other church services.
Balanchivadze was married twice. One of them, Apollon, was a colonel in the White Russian forces, notably serving in the Ice March of 1918.
The couple had four children:
Tamara, a painter, died 1943, during the blockade of Leningrad
George, emigrated to the United States and became an influential ballet choreographer
Andria became a leading composer in Soviet Georgia
?.