Evgeni Mikeladze

Evgeni Mikeladze (July 27, 1903 – 1937) was a leading Georgian orchestra conductor of the 1930s, executed during the Joseph Stalin's Great Purges. He attended musical classes at the Cadet Corps, Tbilisi Real School and finally entered the Tbilisi National Conservatory. Since his childhood, he played various wind instruments, chiefly the trumpet and the French horn, and decided to become a conductor in the mid-1920s. He then took courses at the Leningrad State Conservatory under the guidance of eminent Soviet conductors, Nikolai Malko and Aleksandr Gauk. Back to Tbilisi in 1931, he quickly gained notability as a talented conductor and a promoter of classical music, and earned appraisal from several Soviet and foreign musicians. He organized and led, in 1933, the National Symphony Orchestra of Georgia. A year later, he became a chief conductor at the Tbilisi Opera House.At the age of 33, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Georgian SSR (1936). Mikeladze’s productive career was soon to be abruptly terminated, however. He was married to the daughter of Mamia Orakhelashvili, an Old Bolshevik who was purged under Stalin in 1937. In a independent t Georgia, his name has been given to the National Symphony Orchestra founded and led by Mikeladze.