He was raised by a single mother, noblewoman Elisabed Mikhailis asuli Taktakishvili, who worked as an artist at the Georgian Opera House.

Shalva was one of the founders of the “Association of Young Georgian String Orchestra", and had authored operas, ballets and chamber works.

From a young age, the composer showed great musical promise, and as a child was able to correctly guess notes played on the piano while blindfolded.

He subsequently studied with several piano educators including Militsa K. Korius, Anastasia D. Virasladze, and Evgenia Vasilievna Cherniavskaia, where he met his future wife, Irina Giorgienvna Chirakadze, with whom he lived until the end of his life in 1989.

At the end of high school, he attended and received a diploma from the Air Force Technicuum until he began his studies at the Tbilisi conservatory.

Soon after entering the conservatory in 1942, while Georgia was at war with Nazi Germany, Taktakishvili composed the Anthem of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.