Khatia Buniatishvili

Born in 1987 in Batumi (Georgia) French-Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili discovered the piano at the early age of three and gave her first concert with Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra when she was six. Since then, she has established herself as one of today’s most prominent classical music artists, at home on the world’s great stages and universally celebrated for her “authenticity, charisma, and persuasiveness” (NZZ) and “playing straight from the heart” (The Guardian).

Following an outstanding summer 2018 with appearances in London at the BBC Proms with Paavo Järvi; in Rome with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Long Yu; in Paris at the annual Bastille Day concert; and at the Salzburg Festival and Klavierfestival Ruhr, Khatia’s 2018-19 season includes performances with the Seattle Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and RSO Vienna, as well as international tours with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich in Asia and Orchestre National de Lyon in Germany. Recital appearances include Montreal, Kansas City, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, and at the Barbican Center in London

Following her belief that humanity is at the center of all art, Khatia is involved in numerous social rights projects, such as the DLDwomen13 Conference (2013) in Munich; “To Russia with Love” (2013), a concert in Berlin to speak out against the violation of human rights in Russia; “Charity Concert in Kiev” (2015) for wounded persons in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone; United Nations Climate Change Conference - Marrakech Climate Show; and the United Nation’s 70th Anniversary Humanitarian Concert (2015) in Geneva to benefit Syrian refugees. She is an ambassador of Plan International, a UK-based organization for children’s rights and equality for girls and the Paris-based “Fondation Cœur et Recherche” for cardiovascular research.

Khatia made her U.S. debut at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and has since then performed at the Hollywood Bowl, BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, La Roque-d ‘Anthéron Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Progetto Martha Argerich.

Among Khatia's musical partners are conductors Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, and Philippe Jordan. She has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, China Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and Munich Philharmonic.

An exclusive SONY classical artist, Khatia’s discography includes Franz Liszt (2011), Chopin (2012), Motherland (2014), and Kaleidoscope (2016), as well as piano trios with Gidon Kremer and Giedre Dirvanauskaite (2011) and violin sonatas (2014) with violinist Renaud Capuçon. She also collaborated with rock group Coldplay on their album “A Head Full of Dreams”. Khatia’s most recent recordings unite her with two close musical partners: Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic in concertos by Beethoven and Liszt (2016) and Paavo Järvi and the Czech Philharmonic in Rachmaninov Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (2017).

Khatia studied in Tbilisi with Tengiz Amiredjibi and in Vienna with Oleg Maisenberg.