Maro Tarkhnishvili

Maro (Mariam) Tarkhnishvili was born in Kavtiskhevi, near Gori, in 1891, and died in Tbilisi in 1969. She was regarded as the most outstanding folk singer of Georgia. She mastered the traditional singing of eastern Georgia, specifically that of the Kartli-Kakheti region, with a repertoire learnt within her family.

Her first public appearance with a choir took place in 1910, and by around 1920 she was already organising tours throughout Georgia at the head of her own ensemble. In 1921, Dimitri Arakishvili commissioned her to direct an ethnographic choir at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. During the 1930s she performed in Russia and Ukraine, where she made recordings and took part in radio broadcasts. She performed the traditional repertoire for both women and men.

Many of her versions of popular songs, such as Orovela, a solo harvesting song of great virtuosity, are known as the "Tarkhnishvili versions". Her style combined a beautiful voice with a virtuosic technique.