Lisa Batiashvili
Violin

“Batiashvili’s fearless playing is so tonally rich and technically immaculate.” (The Guardian)

Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

Batiashvili is the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2020 festival, she originally designed a programme to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary year, as well as Beethoven year 2020 under the motto ‘Lights of Europe’. Due to the global pandemic, an adjusted version with streamed concerts under the motto ‘Together for Music’ featured Lisa and other leading musicians, sending out a strong message of solidarity and adaptability.

Lisa Batiashvili regularly appears on stage with orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Sandro Nebieridze
Piano

Sandro Nebieridze is a winner and a finalist of many international piano competitions: China International Music Competition (2019), Grand Piano Competition (2016), Astan Piano Passion (2015), Sberbank-Debut (2013), B. Dvarionas Piano Competition (2011). He is no less successful in composition competitions: his Piano Concerto No.1 was awarded with the prize of Ministry of Culture of Georgia “Best Composition of 2016” and his Toccata for piano won the Vienna Golden Key Piano Composition Competition 2018 and was awarded with the Grand Prix at the First Otar Taktakishvili International Competition.

Both as a performer and composer, Sandro participates in many international festivals such as Night Serenades, Tsinandali Festival, Chamber Music Festival (Georgia), Mozart@Augsburg, Festspiele der Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Festival d’Auvers sur-Oise (France), Stars on Baikal, White Lilac, Crescendo (Russia), Kurt Schmitt and Young Talents (Ukraine).

In 2018, Nebieridze had a solo recital at Rachmaninoff’s Vila Senar in Switzerland. In September 2019, he released his first album of piano works by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. This album was recorded for Harmonia Nova and distributed internationally by Harmonia Mundi. In December 2019, the album was awarded Tsinandali Prize.

Sandro has performed with numerous orchestras under the batons of famous conductors such as Ariel Zukerman, Gianandrea Noseda, Alexander Sladkovsky, Vakhtang Machavariani, Dmitri Shestakov, Enkhe, Revaz Takidze, Mirian Khukhunaishvili, Kakhi Solomnishvili, Kurt Schmidt, and Vladimir Sirenko.

Sandro Nebieridze was born on January 7, 2001 in Tbilisi. He started studying piano at the age of 5 (class of Professor Lali Sanikidze) and composition – at the age of 9 (class of Professor Maka Virsaladze). Currently he is doing his Bachelor’s Studies with the same professors at V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

Sandro Nebieridze is scholarship holder of Lisa Batiashvili Foundation.

Tsotne Zedginidze

Tsotne Zedgenidze was born into a family of musicians. His great-grandfather Niko Sulkhanishvili is considered to be one of the greatest Georgian composers of all times. Moreover, Tsotne is a descendent of Anastasia Abdushelishvili-Virsaladze, who was a famous Professor (among others, her students were Lev Vlasenko, Elisso Virsaladze and Dimitry Bashkirov)

Tsotne Zedgenidze showed interest in music from his early childhood. He showed great enthusiasm for operas, ballets, instrumental and vocal music, already at the age of two he could distinguish and name many different musical instruments. He began piano lessons at five, studying with his grandmother Professor Nino Mamradze. His progress was remarkable: while still only six he had covered basic piano repertoire and was starting to study sonatas by Clementi, Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven, two- and three-part inventions by Bach and pieces by Grieg, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and Prokofiev. His extraordinary sight-reading ability meant that he could play many of these works accurately at first viewing. At the same age he became interested in opera and started listening avidly to Italian operas and also those of Wagner and Strauss.

Also at six, Tsotne started composing and he became increasingly interested in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He advanced his study of opera by playing on the piano the vocal scores of operas including ‘Lulu’ (Berg), ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ (Shostakovich) and ‘Duke Bluebeard’s Castle’ (Bartok). Always self-taught as a composer, he developed and personalized his composing style through musical experiments and a search for new compositional techniques. His interest in opera continues and he watches keenly the productions from leading opera houses of works by Bartok, Janacek, Adès, Berg, Zimmermann, Benjamin, Grey, Hosokawa and other contemporary composers.

Tsotne gave his first public piano recital on 14 June 2019 in Tbilisi, where he performed music by Berg, Bach, Shostakovich and Janacek, alongside a selection of his own compositions. The recital was very well received by an audience including senior figures in the Georgian musical world, many of whom commented on the depth of Tsotne’s understanding of musical form, style and dramaturgy. In September he was invited to give a recital at the Telavi International Music Festival organized by Eliso Virsaladze, his program included pieces by Shostakovich and Schönberg. Tsotne also was invited to participate in season opening concert of the Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the convention on the rights of the child. He performed 2nd piano concerto by Shostakovich and his own compositions. On 28 December Tsotne gave a solo recital at the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where he performed music by Ligeti, Bartok and Schönberg, alongside a selection of his own compositions. The recital was organized by charity foundation “Iavnana”, established by Paata Burchuladze and was a big success. Afterwards, Tsotne recieved invitations to participate in festivals and give recitals in Germany and France, however, due to the coronavirus pandemic, all events werem canceled.

On 14th of June 2020, Tsotne premiered his new piano piece “the Bells”, composed during the quarantine and dedicated to the memory of his mother, Irene Sulkhanishvili. Despite the online format, the concert was very successful and was attended by various leading musicians from Georgia, Europe, USA.

Tsotne continues studying under the guidance of his grandmother, Nina Mamradze. Furthermore, he has received several online lessons from the Professor of piano at the Paris Alfred Cortot Music School Rena Shereshevskaya.

In December 2020 Tsotne traveled to Berlin, Germany and received masterclasses from Maestro Daniel Barenboim and from Professor of composition at the Barenboim-Said Academy – Jörg Widmann.

Composer Giya Kancheli has said, ‘Phenomenal musicians like Tsotne are born once in a century’. Eliso Virsaladze commented, ‘In all my life I have never met anyone quite as remarkable as this child’.

Natalia Kutateladze

Natalia Kutateladze grew up in a musical family in Tbilisi. Both her mother and grandmother are famous Georgian singers, so she was destined to follow in their footsteps.

Natalia studied at Tbilisi State Conservatoire with Dodo Diasamidze and already during her studies performed Mercedes (Carmen) and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) at Tbilisi State Opera. In 2015, she went to the Juilliard School in New York, where she studied with Edith Wiens. Roles she performed there included Ottone (Agrippina) and Minskwoman (Jonathan Dove’s Flight) and Phaedra (Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie).

In the 2018-19 season, she was a member of the Young Artists Studio at the Bayerischer Staatsoper in Munich, where her repertoire included Flora Bervoix (La traviata), Frédéric (Mignon) and many more.

She has also taken part in various competitions and masterclasses, including the Metropolitan Opera House Council Audition and the International Meistersinger Akademie. She was the Second Prize Winner at the 57th Tenor Viñas Competition in 2020, and also the finalist in Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2021.

Natalia Kutateladze’s future engagements include a number of debuts, among others – at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Giorgi Gigashvili

Giorgi Gigashvili is a distinguished representative of a new generation of Georgian pianists. He has carried out an active performing career in Georgia and abroad. He regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician, as well; collaborates with various orchestras and participates in various festivals and master-classes worldwide.

He started his piano lessons in 2007, when he entered the Petre Amiranashvili Art School, class of the honored teacher of Georgia – Bela Prangishvili. From 2014, he continued his musical education at the Zaqaria Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children, where he studied under direction of the honored teacher of Georgia – Lali Rcheulishvili. Later he studied at Tbilisi State Conservatoire under the guidance of Emeritus Revaz Tavadze and Associate Professor Manana Gotsiridze. Currently he is perusing his studies at Geneva – Neuchâtel High School of Music in the class of Nelson Goerner.

Giorgi is a Laureate of many national and international competitions. Among his awards are: First Prize at the Second International Competition of Classical Music ”Art Academy” (Georgia, 2012); First Prize at the Lloret de Mar International competition “Fiestalonia Milenio” (Spain, 2013); The Grand Prix at the “Gershwin International Competition for Pianists” (US, 2015); First Prize at the “The IV Fryderyk Chopin competition for young pianists” (Georgia, 2015); First Prize at the “Chopin International Competition for Pianists” (Estonia, 2016); Second Prize and a nominative prize of Edisher Savitski for "Virtuoso Performance” at the “Tengiz Amirejibi Third International Competition for Young Pianists” (Georgia, 2017); Second Prize and Special Prizes for “The Best Performance of a Piano Concerto” and Liza Leonskaja’s Special Prize "The Best Georgian Performer” at the Sixth Tbilisi International Piano Competition (Georgia, 2017); First Prize and Nelson Freire’s special prize (concert in Sao Paulo) at the competition “City Of Vigo” with a Jury led by Martha Argerich (Spain, 2019).

In September 2019, Giorgi won the Third Prize and the “Audience Prize” at the 62 nd Busoni International Piano Competition.

Giorgi Gigashvili successfully performs in Georgia, USA, Poland, Spain, France and many other countries.

Giorgi Gigashvili is a scholarship holder of Lisa Batiashvili Foundation.