Mariam Batsashvili, Piano

Biography

In 2014, Georgian pianist Mariam Batsashvili won First Prize at the 10th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht.  She also took home the Junior Jury Award and the Press Prize. “Winner Batsashvili turns every phrase into something special”, was the headline in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.  The International Press Jury called her a “complete artist” with an “amazing touch” and full of “heartfelt emotion”.

As winner of the Liszt Competition, Ms. Batsashvili has embarked on an extensive concert tour, taking her to more than twenty countries. The day after her victory, she made her debut to a sold-out audience in the main hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam together with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of James Gaffigan.

Mariam Batsashvili studied at the E. Mikeladze Central Music School in Tbilisi and at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. She won prizes from various competitions such as First Prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar in 2011 and the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award in 2015.

Aside from her native country, Ms. Batsashvili has performed in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Israel and South Africa, both in recital and with orchestra. She was a soloist with the Erfurt Philharmonisches Orchester and with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on numerous occasions. 

In the coming years, she will work with renowned orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. She will also appear at festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, Pianofortissimo Festival Bologna and the Delft Chamber Music Festival. The tour will cover 30 countries including China (Beijing and Shanghai), Brazil, the United States, South Africa, South Korea, the Baltic Countries, Indonesia, Norway, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Recently she was selected as a ‘Rising Star’ by ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) for the Season 2016/17, which brings with it appearances in many prestigious European venues.

Mariam Batsashvili is a scholarship holder of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.