The president of Georgia, Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili has awarded Ms. Lamara Chkonia, the opera singer, the laureate of the international contests, with the presidential order of excellence, for her outstanding and distinguished carrier and effective role in popularization of opera.
"I want to welcome you and say, that this is a great honor for me to award you with the one of the highest medals that Georgia has, the Presidential Order of Excellence. I would like to briefly overview Ms. Lamara Chkonia's distinguished carrier. The most important and valuable for Georgia is its culture and exceptional talent of its prominent people that represents our country.
Ms. Lamara Chkonia is not only a brilliant operatic soprano and a big talent of our country but she is an ardent patriot. Having lived in different countries across the world, she never cut her spiritual, cultural, personal and state links with her motherland, Georgia.
I want her to serve as an example of being a genuine patriot of one's country. I have read her very interesting book, which is brilliantly written and easy for reading. In her book she has beautifully outlined the genuine feeling of enormous love for her motherland. I want Georgia to have more of such patriots. We are a small country and Georgia cannot impress the world by its size, size of its population or its natural resources. Our major resource is each and every brilliant and talented representative of the nation. This resource is the steady guarantee for the state and nation to be outstanding. There are few nations like that and I believe that Georgia is among them. I want to pass you an award and say that only the word Excellency can express the achievements that you have mastered during your life - said the president."
Ms. Lamara Chkonia is a prominent Georgian soprano. She is the people's artist of Georgia, Ukraine and the USSR. She is the laureate of the international contests of Prague, Moscow, Sofia and Tokio. She was the teacher at Tbilisi conservatory. Her students were - Ms. Nato and Eter Chkonia who currently are very successful in their professional carrier abroad.
In year 2007, Ms. Lamara Chkonia has issued her book with the title "Waves of the Life", where she beautifully describes extracts of her interesting life.