Composer Mikael Tariverdiev was born on August 15, 1931, in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, the U.S.S.R. He studied at the prestigious Gnesins Music School in Moscow under the renowned Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian. Upon his graduation from that school in 1957, Tariverdiev went on to compose numerous vocal chamber pieces that were performed by the famous singer Zara Dolukhanova. Soon, he also started to write film scores and through his film music, he became known to millions of people in the former Soviet Union. Overall, he scored 132 films, of which The Seventeen Moments of Spring and Irony of Fate are most notable. Tariverdiev's work was not limited to film; he composed numerous vocal pieces, four ballets, four operas, concerts for violin and orchestra, and the organ symphony Chernobyl. He won 18 international awards including one from the American Music Academy in 1975, one from Japan's Victor Company in 1978, and three Nika film awards (Russia's equivalent of the Oscars) in 1991, 1994, and 1997. Mikael Tariverdiev died on July 25, 1995, in Sochi, Russia. ~ Yuri German, Rovi