Mariam Batsashvili

Twenty one year old Mariam Batsashvili from Georgia won First Prize at the 10th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht. She received her prize in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Máxima. “Winner Mariam turns every phrase into something special”, was the headline in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Mariam also took home the Junior Jury Award and the Press Prize. The International Press Jury called her a “complete artist” with an “amazing touch” and full of “heartfelt emotion”. Mariam is the first female First Prize winner of the Liszt Competition. As a winner she will embark on an extensive concert tour, taking her to more than thirty countries.

As early as the morning after the Finals in Utrecht’s Tivoli Vredenburg 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 successively at the E. Mikeladze Central Music School in Tbilisi with Natalia Natsvlishvili and at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar with Grigory Gruzman. She won prizes from various competitions such as First Prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar in 2011 as well as the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award in 2015.

Aside from her native country, Mariam has performed in such countries as 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 future Batsashvili will work with renowned orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. She will also play at festivals such as the Beethoven fest Bonn, Pianofortissimo Festival Bologna and Delft Chamber Music Festival. Recently she has been selected as a ‘Rising Star’ by ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) for the Season 2016/17, which sees her performing in the 21 most prestigious venues of Europe.

All Liszt Programme
全李斯特曲目

Liszt: Sonata in B-minor
降B小調奏鳴曲

Liszt: Harmonies poétiques et religieuses S173/3
孤獨之中上帝的祝福

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13
匈牙利狂想曲第十三號

Liszt: Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s “Almira” S 181
薩拉邦德與夏康，選自韓德爾歌劇「阿爾米拉」

Liszt: Tarantella (Venezia e Napoli) S162/3
塔朗泰拉舞曲《威尼斯和拿坡里》