{{Short description|Georgian operatic tenor (1937–2017)}} {{family name hatnote|Lavrentyevich|Sotkilava|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox person | name = Zurab Sotkilava | honorific_suffix = | native_name = ზურაბ სოტკილავა | native_name_lang = ge | image = Sotkilava.png | caption = | birth_name = Zurab Lavrentyevich Sotkilava | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1937|3|12}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|9|18|1937|3|12|df=yes}} | birth_place = Sukhumi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union | death_place = Moscow, Russia | occupation = {{plainlist| *Tenor opera singer (1965–2017) *Football player (1955–1959) }} | module = {{Infobox football biography | embed = yes | name = Football career | image = | image_size = | fullname = Zurab Lavrentyevich Sotkilava<ref>[http://footballfacts.ru/players/108707-sotkilava-zurab-lavrentevich Profile at Footballfacts.ru] {{in lang|ru}}</ref> | position = Defender | youthyears1 = 1951–1955 | youthclubs1 = Dinamo Sokhumi | years1 = 1955 | years2 = 1956 | years3 = 1958–1959 | clubs1 = Dinamo Tbilisi | caps1 = 2 | goals1 = 0 | clubs2 = FShM Tbilisi | caps2 = | goals2 = | clubs3 = Dinamo Tbilisi | caps3 = 1 | goals3 = 0 | pcupdate = }} }} '''Zurab Lavrentyevich Sotkilava''' ({{langx|ru|Зураб Лаврентьевич Соткилава}}, {{lang-ka|ზურაბ სოტკილავა}}; 12 March 1937 – 18 September 2017) was a Soviet and Georgian operatic tenor. Since the early 1970s, he lived and worked in Moscow. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1979.
==Biography== ===Education=== In 1960, Sotkilava graduated from the Tbilisi State Polytechnical Institute.
===Football career=== Sotkilava began playing association football during childhood. At age 16, he joined Dinamo Sokhumi where he played full-back. In 1956 he became captain of the Georgia national team, and two years later he joined Dinamo Tbilisi.<ref>[http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/sotkilava/ Зураб Лаврентьевич Соткилава / Zurab Sotkilava profile], peoples.ru; accessed 19 September 2017.</ref> In 1958 he incurred severe injuries while playing in Yugoslavia. This ultimately led to the end of his sports career in Czechoslovakia the following year.<ref name="Biogra">{{cite web|url= https://ria.ru/spravka/20170312/1489712469.html |title= Биография Зураба Соткилавы |publisher= РИА Новости |date= 2017-03-12 |access-date=2017-09-21}}</ref>
===Music career=== In 1965 he graduated from the Tbilisi Conservatory under the guidance of David Andguladze. Between 1965 and 1974 Sotkilava was a soloist of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre (named after Zacharia Paliashvili). From 1966 to 1968 he was a student at La Scala where his teacher was Dinaro Barra. He later became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory where he remained until 1988. After six years he became chairman of the International Tchaikovsky Competition and was a member of the Bologna Academy of Music, at which point he became known for his singing of Giuseppe Verdi's works.
By 2000, he chaired the jury at the Kinoshock film festival at Anapa, which hosted films from throughout the CIS and Baltic States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/opera/48|title=Zurab Sotkilava:Tenor (1937-2017) |publisher=Bolshoi Theatre|access-date=14 January 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225053003/https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/opera/48/| archive-date=25 December 2018}}</ref>
==Later life and death== In 2015, he was diagnosed with a malignant pancreatic tumor; he died in 2017, at age 80,<ref>[http://lifenews.ru/news/157105 Оперный певец Зураб Соткилава признался, что тяжело болен раком], lifenews.ru; accessed 19 September 2017.{{in lang|ru}}</ref> and was survived by his wife, Eliso Turmanidze, and his two daughters.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
==Roles at the Bolshoi Theatre== *''Il trovatore'' — Manrico *''Tosca'' – Cavaradossi *''Iolanta'' – Vaudemont *''Aida'' – Radames *''Sadko'' – Indian merchant *''The Abduction of the Moon'' – Arzakan *''Un ballo in maschera'' – Riccardo *''Cavalleria rusticana'' – Turiddu *''{{Interlanguage link|La molinara|it}}'' — Don Caloandro *''Boris Godunov'' – The pretender *''Khovanshchina'' – Galitzine *''Nabucco'' – Ismaele
==Awards and honours== * 2nd prize International Tchaikovsky Competition (1970)<ref name="ЗБ">[http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/national/sotkilava/ Биография Зураба Соткилавы], peoples.ru; accessed 19 September 2017.{{in lang|ru}}</ref> * Honored Artist of the Georgian SSR (1970) *People's Artist of the Georgian SSR (1973)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mosconsv.info/teachers/about.phtml?278 |title=Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского — Педагоги — Соткилава Зураб Лаврентьевич<!-- The title was added by a bot --> |access-date=2016-07-24 |archive-date=2017-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005213402/http://mosconsv.info/teachers/about.phtml?278 |url-status=dead }}</ref> *People's Artist of the USSR (1979)<ref name="ЗБ"/> * Shota Rustaveli Prize (1993) * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class (2017) * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class (2007)<ref>Presidential Decree dated 3 December 2007, № 1626</ref> * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class (2001)<ref>[http://document.kremlin.ru/doc.asp?ID=006233 Указ Президента РФ от 22 марта 2001 г. № 325] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105160818/http://document.kremlin.ru/doc.asp?ID=006233 |date=2012-01-05 }}, kremlin.ru; accessed 19 September 2017.{{in lang|ru}}</ref> * Order of the Badge of Honour (1971) * Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1976) *Three Orders of Honor (Georgia) (1997, 2007, 2016)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mycelebrities.ru/publ/ljudi/vokalisty/zurab_sotkilava/20-1-0-867 |title=Биографии вокалистов |access-date=2016-07-24 |archive-date=2017-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005202503/http://mycelebrities.ru/publ/ljudi/vokalisty/zurab_sotkilava/20-1-0-867 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * Ovation (2008) *Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Honour (2012) <ref>[http://pravo.gov.ru:8080/page.aspx?26423 Распоряжение Президента РФ от 27 октября 2012 г. № 486-рп], pravo.gov.ru; accessed 19 September 2017.{{in lang|ru}}</ref> *Honorary Member of the Academy of Music Bologna (Italy) - elected "for a brilliant interpretation of the works of Verdi" *Academician of the Academy of aesthetics and Liberal Arts (Moscow)<ref>[http://www.independent-academy.net/about/members/sotkilava.html Состав академии: Зураб Лаврентьевич Соткилава], independent-academy.net; accessed 19 September 2017.{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
== Former students == * Ksenia Leonidova<ref>[http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/person.aspx?id=8935 Московская государственная консерватория имени П. И. Чайковского], mosconsv.ru; accessed December 25th 2019{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.utro.ru/articles/2007/03/13/632156.shtml Interview with Zurab Sotkilava] {{in lang|ru}}; accessed 19 September 2017.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotkilava, Zurab}} Category:1937 births Category:2017 deaths Category:20th-century Russian male opera singers Category:20th-century male opera singers from Georgia (country) Category:21st-century male opera singers from Georgia (country) Category:People from Sukhumi Category:Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory Category:Tbilisi State Conservatoire alumni Category:Honored Artists of the Georgian SSR Category:Laureates of the State Prize of Georgia (country) Category:People's Artists of Georgia Category:People's Artists of the USSR Category:Prize-winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition Category:Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Category:Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Category:Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Category:Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Category:Recipients of the Order of Honor (Georgia) Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Category:Rustaveli Prize winners Category:FC Dinamo Tbilisi players Category:Men's association football defenders Category:Russian music educators Category:Russian operatic tenors Category:Soviet men's footballers Category:Soviet music educators Category:Soviet operatic tenors Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Russia