სოფიო ჭოლოკავა

Sopio Cholokava (1921-1997) was a Georgian folk singer and instrumentalist. In the 1930s she started to sing with an car-repair factory ensemble (Ансамбль Чонгуристок п/у А. Мегрелидзе) led by Avksenti Megrelidze (Авксенти Мегрелидзе), which travelled to Moscow in 1938, and there was invited to join a large all-republic ensemble, which toured the USSR for the next two years. She then returned to Tbilisi, and studied conducting, taking over in 1941 the leadership of the factory ensemble Megrelidze had founded. In 1943 she joined Megrelidze's Radio Committee choir (Georgian Radio Folk Song Ensemble), and also in the 1940s & 1950s sang with Mariam Arjevnishvili (Мариам Арджевнишвили)'s ensemble. From the late 1940s she led various children's folk song ensembles to a high standard.