Formed under the auspices of the folksong and dance group the Rustavi Company, the all-male Rustavi Choir (pronounced: roostahvi) has been sharing their love of Soviet Georgia's polyphonic vocal music for more than three decades. The choir's director, Anzor Erkomaishvili, a seventh generation performer, formed the group shortly after graduating from the Tbilisi Conservatory. Much of the choir's repertoire is performed a capella, although, a few tunes incorporate indigenous stringed instruments, such as the chongun and the phanduri. In 1993, the Rustavi Choir received an Albert Schweitzer Prize from the Federal Republic of Germany for its "high artistic standards and its efforts to promote friendship." ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide
Ensemble was created in 1968 by Anzor Erkomaishvili, a singer and folklorist from a distinguished Georgian musical lineage that goes back seven generations. Since its formation Rustavi has successfully toured more than 50 countries of the world, always receiving the most glowing comments – even from the toughest of critics. Songs and dances for work and war, spectacular costumes, the unique Georgian style of polyphonic singing and rich voices characterize the Rustavi Choir. Their intense sacred hymns with their overlapping, continuously moving harmonies are spellbinding. Rustavi is also performing a high-quality comprising national and diverse traditional dances. Excellent costumes, brilliant performance, and elaborate choreography. Erkomaishvili's vision was to break through ethnic boundaries of regional styles while performing ethnographically authentic music from all of Georgia. The Rustavi's performance style synthesizes the powerful, rough-hewn sound characteristic of the traditional regional folk choirs with a newer, cleaner, more finely-honed aesthetic whose orientation is towards concert presentation - nowadays on an increasingly international scale. While striving to preserve, and in some cases recreate, authentic voicings and vocal timbres, the Rustavi singers have simplified the complex scales used by the earlier choirs in order to create firmer, more brilliant harmonies. The use of a smaller number of Singers for certain songs has also helped to clarify their musical structure.
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