Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli (გია ყანჩელი), (10 August 1935 – 2 October 2019) was a Georgian composer. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, but resided in Belgium. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kancheli lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and from 1995 in Antwerp, where he became composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He died in his home city of Tbilisi, aged 84. Kancheli arguably Georgia's best-known cultural export.