Josef Bardanashvili was born in Batumi, Georgia. He studied at the Music Academy in Tbilisi, where he graduated with a doctorate in composition in 1976. He was Director of the Music College in Batumi (1986-1991), and Culture Vice-Minister in Adjaria (1993-1994), and in this capacity organized numerous international music festivals.

Bardanashvili settled in Israel in 1995. He served as composer-in-residence at the Israel Camerata Jerusalem (2009-2016), at the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion (2005-2006), and at the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra (1996-1999). He is a faculty member of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel-Aviv University, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and Rimon School of Music.

His numerous compositions had successfully been performed by Israeli orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, the Musica Nova Ensemble and the Israel Contemporary Players, and in music festivals in Israel and abroad.

He has composed more than a hundred works, including five operas, music for sixty theatres and fifty-five films, five ballets, four symphonies, concertos for various soloists, choral music, chamber music and songs. Two of his operas – A Journey to the End of the Millennium based on libretto by A.B. Yehoshua, and Dybbuk based on the famous novel by An-sky, were commissioned and performed by The Israeli Opera.