Zurab Sotkilava

• Name — Zurab Sotkilava • Native Name — ზურაბ სოტკილავა • Birth Name — Zurab Lavrentyevich Sotkilava • Born — 12 March 1937 • Died — 18 September 2017 • Birthplace — Sukhumi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union • Place of death — Moscow, Russia • Occupation — * Tenor opera singer (1965–2017) • Football player (1955–1959)

In 1960, Sotkilava graduated from the Tbilisi State Polytechnical Institute.

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. 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.

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.

In 2015, he was diagnosed with a malignant pancreatic tumor; he died in 2017, at age 80, and was survived by his wife, Eliso Turmanidze, and his two daughters.

• 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 • La molinara — Don Caloandro • Boris Godunov – The pretender • Khovanshchina – Galitzine • Nabucco – Ismaele