educators including Militsa K. Korius, Anastasia D. Virasladze, and Evgenia Vasilievna Cherniavskaia, where he met his future wife, Irina Giorgienvna Chirakadze, with whom he lived until the end of his life in 1989. Their romance started at the piano while practicing a piano piece for four hands. At the end of high school, he attended and received a diploma from the Air Force Technicuum until he began his studies at the Tbilisi conservatory. Soon after entering the conservatory in 1942, while Georgia was at war with Nazi Germany, Taktakishvili composed the Anthem of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. According to the composer's own report, his mother had urged him to enter the contest for the National Anthem after seeing the words to the anthem published in the newspaper. The 19-year-old composer wrote the music “in one try”, submitted his entry and forgot about the contest. He only found out that his music had been selected when he stood outside the concert hall and heard his anthem being played. Taktakishvili studied at the Tbilisi Conservatory under Aleksandr Gauk, Sergei V. Barchudarian and Andria Balanchivadze. The composer's early influences were Georgian folk music, composers of the classical era, e.g. Mozart, J.S. Bach and Beethoven, and more modern composers, including Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich. In his senior year, Taktakishvili had the opportunity to study with Dmitri Shostakovich, and that led to a long-standing collaboration and friendship. Taktakishvili was survived by his spouse, Irina Chirakadze, who resided in the same apartment on 6 Taktakishvili street (former Riga street) where the composer lived from 1964 until 1989, as well as his son Mikhail O. Taktakishvili, who was a professor of Chemistry, and grandson Otar M. Taktakishvili, who is a physician and a composer, living in New York. Works Operas Mindia (based on works of Vazha-Pshavela, 1961) Award (Tele-opera, 1964) Three Tales, operatic triptychon from three short operas. The Abduction of the Moon (Based on the novel of Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, 1977) Mususi (The Lady Killer), comic opera (Based on the novel of Mikheil Javakhishvili, 1977) First Love (1979) Filmography 1957 — I Will Say the Truth 1982 — The Law of Eternity 1984 — Monday - Usual Day Awards People's Artist of Georgia (1961) People's Artist of the USSR (1974) USSR State Prize третьей степени (1951) for first symphony USSR State Prize второй степени (1952) USSR State Prize (1967) Lenin Prize (1982) — For