[5] In his autobiographical notes Zacharia Paliashvili writes: "...in our big family, my beloved brothers and sisters displayed a natural gift of music even in their early age.

To my mind the explanation of this should be sought in the fact that we, being catholics attended the church where the sweet sounds of organ music are not only enjoyable but help develop a good ear... we spend much time in the church and gradually developed a good ear.." The first to display considerable musical abilities was the eldest son Ivane (Vano) Paliashvili (1868–1934) who subsequently became an outstanding conductor.

With the help of the dean, Father I. Antonishvili, little Zacharia studied "Lullaby for Jesus" and sang it with great success on Christmas night.

Upon leaving the two-year parish school, brothers Ivan and Zacharia began to play the piano under tutorship of Felix Mizandari, an organist and pianist.

[8] The first performance of a Georgian Ethnographic choir, established of the initiative and with the material support of Lado Agniashvili, a well-known public personality, took place in Tbilisi in 1886.

[10] in 1874 on the initiative of singer Kharlamphy Savaneli, pianists Aloizy Mizandari and Konstantin Alikhanov, the first musical school in Georgia was founded in Tbilisi.

This was carried out with the active assistance of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, a well-known Russian composer, conductor and educationalist who worked in Tbilisi in (1882–1893).

Following an exchange of letters with Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915), a Russian composer and teacher, Paliashvili went to Moscow towards the end of August 1900.

Three years of study with Professor Taneyev, an expert in polyphony, enriched Paliashvili with fundamental knowledge and facilitated his maturing into a professional composer.

In autumn of 1903, Paliashvili began teaching at the Tbilisi High School for the nobility, where he had a singing class and also conducted the choir and orchestra, founded by him.

Besides instructing classes in solfeggio, harmony and orchestration, he conducted the pupils' choir and orchestra, the public performances of which were invariably successful.

In 1906, using a piano piece by A. Karashvili ("Sazandary") as a point of departure, Paliashvili composed a profoundly patriotic song, "Samshoblo", which became popular throughout Georgia.

[14] Progressive Georgians before the revolution had regarded collecting, recording and elaboration of folklore material as an essential element, contributing to the spiritual life of the nation.

Apart from the practical application – the use of folklore material as the basis of literary fand musical work – a large scale propaganda of remarkable folk poetry and songs formed a major instrument for stimulating the Georgian people's patriotic sentiments.

In 1903–1908 with the same goal in view Paliashvili toured such districts as Racha, where he recorded local folk singers, and in particular a mestvire (Bag-piper); Guria (Ozurgeti), Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti.

Paliashvili was a good friend of this talented daughter of the Ukrainian people and of her husband till Lesya Ukraininka's death.

The efforts of Kargareteli, Paliashvili and Niko Kartvelishvili led to the first ever Georgian-language performances of Gounod's Faust, Anton Rubinstein's Demon, Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Verdi's Aida and Bizet's Carmen in the Tbilisi opera house.

He was inspired in this by a folk legend, "Eteriany", which had been published in the Paskunji magazine (the fire bird, 1908) and rendered in the form of an opera libretto by Petre Mirianashvili, a teacher, writer and public personality of the time.

The leading parts were performed by B. Zapliski (Absalom), who was soon substituted by Vano Sarajishvili; O. Bakutashvili-Shulgina (Etery) and Sandro Inashvili (Murman).

[17] The rousing success of his first opera had inspired Paliashvili to compose another – the lyrical-drama Daisi ("Twilight" or "Sunset") founded on the libretto by Valerian Gunia, a stage art personality, actor and playwright.

to words by Ilia Chavchavadze and "lullaby" to the words of Mikhail Lermontov and several chamber pieces were dedicated to Nadejda Ivanovna Buzogly (Abashidze), a close friend of the composer, a merited artist of the Georgian Republic, professor of the Chair of Solo Singing of the Tbilisi Conservatorie, and candidate of sciences (arts).

The "Collection of Ten Georgian and Russian folk songs" was dedicated by Paliashvili to Buzogly's sons Mikhail and Alexy.

Paliashvili always enjoyed real friendship and respect of his talent in the family of the well-known civil engineer Mikhail Buzogly and his wife.

[20] Early in 1929 Paliashvili was invited to Ukraine to conduct two concerts of Georgian music in Kharkov, then the capital of Ukrainian Soviet Republic.

The reception in honor of Paliashvili was attended by distinguished representatives of Ukrainian culture and also by Henri Barbusse, a French writer who was on a visit to the Soviet Union at that time.

It was there that the idea came to produce in Kharkov Absalom and Eteri and in Tbilisi Taras Bulba, a Ukrainian classical opera by Nikolay Lysenko.

Absalom and Eteri was produced in Ukrainian by Konstantin Tsagareli, a gifted lawyer and close friend of the composer, jointly with O.

Paliashvili was buried on October 10 in the garden of the opera house next to the grave of his friend Ivane "Vano" Sarajishvili, known as the "Georgian nightingale".

In 1959, the entire second floor of 10 Barnov Street, where Paliashvili lived from 1915 to 1933, was set aside as his Home-Museum, which contains valuable materials relating to the life and work of the composer.