Three Songs By Georgian Gori Women's Choir to Be Sent to the Moon

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Founded in 1970 as a musical school girl’s choir in Georgia by maestro Shalva Mosidze and the director of the school Alexandre Katcharava, the choir has seen great success in international festivals, awarded for outstanding performance in Debrecen 1986 and Marktoberdorf 1989.

Georgian choir conductor, choirmaster, and teacher Shalva Mosidze also carries the status of People's Artist of Georgia (1988) and Professor Emeritus of Tbilisi State Conservatory (2020). He is the laureate of Shota Rustaveli and Zakaria Paliashvili Prizes.

Georgian performers have joined the Lunar Codex project, digital archive created by Incandence Corp. The works of the Gori Women's Choir will be sent to the moon in the framework of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Space X and Astrobotic Technology joint project designed by Dr. Samuel Peralta.

Works from Gori Women's Choir from Georgia are among various paintings, books, films, and composition pieces by artists from 91 countries that will be sent to the moon via a time capsule.

Tamar Gogatishvili, former member of the Gori Women's Choir was contacted by a friend associated with the project.

“That’s why, when one of the members of the project, my Filipino friend Romana Go contacted me, searching for Art from Georgia, the first thing that came to my mind was the Gori Women's Chamber.”

Gogatishvili expressed her gratitude to the Tbilisi women's team led by Omar Burduli, the Gori Girls Team led by Nino Tsiklauri and Tamar Buadze ‘Tutarchela’ for their constant support.

— Why Gori Women’s Choir?

— There was no limitation in the specters of art, anything could have been recommended, however, personally for me, as for the former member of the Gori Women’s Choir, art, culture, music, and professionalism are associated with the Grand Maestro, Mr. Shalva Mosidze.

For more than 40 years, Maestro Shalva, despite many difficulties, managed to transform the sound and the emotion that he brought to the listener heavenly experiences, earning the admiration and indelible impression on the audience.

Tamar emphasized that Mosidze raised generations with devotion to their craft and professionalism, and did so when Georgia was not even on the world map.

The artistic director of the choir Teona Tsiramua accepted the offer with an open heart. She managed to overcome the difficulties caused by the Covid Pandemic and completed three songs with the support of Leno Records: Georgian choral music classic, genius Ioseb Kechakmadze’s “Exercise”, “Lasharis Gzaze” (On the road to Lashari) and Georgian (Abkhazian) folk “Varado”. All these works will be placed in the second capsule and the digital archive is projected to land in the southern part of the moon in 2024.

Along with the works, the history of the choir, founded by Shalva Mosidze and Sandro Kacharava, was also sent. These three works recorded by the women's choir for the moon have been released as EPs through Leno Records and can be streamed on all digital platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, etc).