| Hangszer | Piano |
The soloist of Chopin’s Piano Concerto will be the 31-year-old Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili. She began studying piano at the age of three, gave her first concert at the age of six and despite her young age she has already played with many famous orchestras (Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic or – in February 2013 with Concerto Budapest).
Born on 21 June 1987 in Tbilisi, Khatia Buniatishvili grew up in Georgia. She was introduced to the piano by their mother. Her talent was soon recognized when and she made her debut with orchestra the age of six. She was subsequently invited to foreign guest performances in Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Israel and the USA.
Khatia Buniatishvili won the special prize of the Horowitz Piano Competition in Kiev in 2003 and the first prize of the Elizabeth Leonskaya Scholarship. At the 2003 Piano Competition in Tbilisi, she became acquainted with Oleg Maisenberg, who convinced her to transfer to Vienna’s Academy for Music and the Performing Arts. At the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Competition in 2008, she won the third prize and was distinguished as the Best Performer of a Chopin Piece and the Audience Favourite.
She has appeared at many prestigious festivals including Verbier Festival, Progetto Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer's Internationales Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, Gstaad Festival and La Roque d’Anthéron Festival as well as performing with the Israel Philharmonic, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philhadelphia Orchestra and Larry Foster at the Saratoga Festival, the NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi. In 2008 she made her US performing debut at Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall) with the Chopin Piano Concerto No 2. The following year she performed the Mendelssohn Double Concerto with Gidon Kremer at the Musikverein Vienna and toured with him and the Kremerata Baltica to Milan (La Scala), Rome, Pavia and Istanbul. Upcoming engagements will see her perform with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris with Paavo Järvi.
She has given critically-acclaimed solo recitals and chamber music concerts in halls including the Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Musikverein Vienna. Many musicians and journalists see Khatia Buniatishvili as one of the great pianists of the future. She is a BBC New Generation Artist for the two coming seasons and as such regularly collaborates with the BBC orchestras. She received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2010 and the same year she signed an exclusive contract with Sony.
