Rustavi Ensemble
Founded in 1968, the Rustavi is Georgia’s leading vocal ensemble. It was created in 1968 by Anzor Erkomaishvilli, a singer and folklorist from a distinguished Georgian musical lineage that goes back seven generations. Since its formation, the company has performed not only in Georgia, but also beyond the country’s borders, holding concerts, participating in competitions, performing on radio and television, and making commercial recordings. Since it is polyphonic, each singer in the Rustavi Choir is both a trained soloist and choral musician with an impeccable command of the art of improvisation. Rustavi incorporates representatives from different parts of Georgia. The choir members infuse its repertoire with the unique vocal traditions of their native areas, as well as with their local songs and an instinctive knowledge of their performing style. Each individual thus lends his own unique timbre of the national colour and brilliant mastery in performance.
Rustavi is also performing a high-quality comprising national and diverse traditional dances. Excellent costumes, brilliant performance, and elaborate choreography - this is Rustavi dance ensemble.
Erkomaishvili's vision was to break through ethnic boundaries of regional styles while performing ethnographically authentic music from all of Georgia. The Rustavi's performance style synthesizes the powerful, rough-hewn sound characteristic of the traditional regional folk choirs with a newer, cleaner, more finely-honed aesthetic whose orientation is towards concert presentation - nowadays on an increasingly international scale.
Rustavi has successfully toured more than 60 countries of the world, performed about 5000 concerts in such major world venues as Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall (The UK), Olympia, Zenith, Mogador (France), Herodes Atticus on the Acropolis, Ancient Olympic Stadium in Olympia (Greece), Les Etoiles (Monaco), NAC Opera, North Bay Arts Centre (Canada), Carnegie Hall, Beacon Theatre, Civic Opera House (the US), Aspendos, Konyaalti (Turkey), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Frits Philips Eindhoven (The Netherlands) Wiener Konzerthaus (Austria), Roppongi Hills Garden Arena (Japan), Moscow International House of Music, St.Petersbourg Conservatory Grand Concert Hall, P.Tchaikovski Concert Hall (Russia), always receiving the most glowing comments:
"Monaco” Monaco, 13.08.1979
"Rustavi” from Georgia gave a concert to a full house in "Les Etoiles” theatre, which was attended by Prince Rainer III and Jean Louis Medecin, Major of Monaco City… We would like to tank his brilliant Ensemble, which enchanted the audience by the virtuoso performance…”
New York Times, 7.04.1990
"If you have never heard the stunning polyphonic sound of Georgian choirs, the 10-member chorus here offers remarkable range… We get what we need… The audience express its reaction with interjections.”
“Gazeta Wyborcza”, Poznań, 24.02.2003
“The voice that fills up the heart and mind and penetrates into the flesh and bones. This is how the Ensemble “Rustavi” sang the traditional music of their homeland yesterday in Poznań… It was not surprising, that after the first song there was the burst of applause.”
The ensemble has performed and recorded more than 600 folk songs, 10 LP’s and 10 CD’s. The ensemble’s craftsmanship is a deeply rooted one; its source is folk music, the mastery of folk performance. Rustavi is genetically linked with this source, deriving special energy and evolving from it.
