Biography
Tamara Gverdtsiteli is a Soviet, Georgian and Russian singer (contralto), actress, composer, pianist. People’s and Honored Artist of the Georgian SSR (1991). People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (2004). Winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1984). Member of the public council of the Russian Jewish Congress.
According to her mother’s recollections, Tamara began to sing before she spoke; Tamriko intoned a musical phrase for the first time at the age of 7-8 months. The child had his first performance as a soloist at the age of three, in kindergarten.
At the age of seven she was already giving piano concerts, and at twelve she tried herself as a composer, writing a tragic song for the death of a classmate.
In the early 1970s, the young talent became the soloist of the children’s group “Mziuri” (translated from Georgian as sunny), traveling with him to many corners of the Soviet Union, gaining her first popularity.
After graduating from secondary school, the girl entered the Tbilisi Conservatory to study composition and piano. In her free time, she attended vocal classes at a music college, while continuing to perform as part of the Mziuri ensemble.
The talented performer quickly became very popular, which was facilitated by her victories in music competitions: the Red Carnation festival, and later in Dresden, San Remo and, of course, the Bulgarian Golden Orpheus.
Gverdtsiteli made her first solo projects on the stage in the first half of the 1980s, releasing two albums “Debut. Tamara Gverdtsiteli” in 1982, and “Music: Tamara Gverdtsiteli Sings” in 1985. Even then, the singer stood out from her colleagues by performing songs in various languages.
Gverdtsiteli met the great French composer Michel Legrand in the early 1990s. The cassettes with her recordings were transferred to Legrand, who listened to them only two years later, and hearing the amazing voice of the Georgian singer, invited her to come to France to work together.
In 1994, the singer made her debut on the stage of the Olympia in Paris, followed by concerts at Carnegie Hall (USA).
Tamara Mikhailovna considers the French composer her teacher, who had a huge influence on her musical destiny. But, despite the fruitful work with Michel Legrand, Gverdtsiteli returns to active performances at concert venues of the former Union. And soon the singer goes on her first tour of the United States of America.
Tamara Mikhailovna has several studio albums with songs not only in Georgian and Russian, but also in French, Italian, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Armenian, German and others.
In 2005, the singer made her theatrical debut. She appeared on stage as Dulcinea in the Russian Army Theater’s play “Man of La Mancha”, playing in a duet with Vladimir Zeldin.
In 2008, Gverdtsiteli became the winner of the Channel One television project “Two Stars” together with actor Dmitry Dyuzhev. Their duet turned out to be so successful that in 2010 a joint program “Winter Waltz” was prepared, which premiered at the Moscow International House of Music.
Three years later, viewers had the opportunity to appreciate the singer’s voice in the television project “The Phantom of the Opera”, here she was able to show her abilities in a completely different musical genre, different from pop music.
In 2018, the artist gave an anniversary concert in the Kremlin, a recording of which was later shown on Channel One.
The premiere of Francis Poulenc’s mono-opera “The Human Voice” was successfully held on the stage of the Moscow Helikon Opera in March 2018. Since then, this production has occupied a worthy place in the theater’s repertoire and invariably attracts full houses. Gverdtsiteli dedicated this performance to Michel Legrand, whose legendary songs are heard in the second part of the program.
Since 2018, he has been a member of the public council of the Russian Jewish Congress.
In 2014, Tamara appeared on the screens of the Ukrainian TV channel “1+1” as one of the mentors of the music show “Voice of the Country”.
In 2020, he became a member of the jury and mentor of the music show “Voice 60+”. The winner of the season was Tamara Gverdtsiteli’s ward, 91-year-old blockade survivor Dina Yudina.
By May 9, 2021, the singer prepared a new concert program “Dedicated to the Great Victory…”, which was shown on Channel One. Lev Leshchenko, Alexander Rosenbaum, Elena Vaenga, Oleg Gazmanov, Sergey Trofimov, Diana Arbenina and other domestic performers also took part in it.