Biography
“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. In 2021 Batiashvili formed and continues to lead the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, which serves her lifelong dream and commitment in supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers.
In 2023/24, Batiashvili takes up her residency with Berliner Philharmoniker performing across the season at home and on tour with Kirill Petrenko and Daniel Barenboim. She also performs chamber concerts with Emmanuel Pahud and musicians from Berlin Philharmonic as well as with Jörg Widmann, Denis Kozhukhin and Tsotne Zedginidze, a talented young Georgian pianist and composer supported by her foundation. The final part of the residency features Lisa as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Academy. Following their most recent tour of Europe, Lisa returns to the stage with pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and cellist Gautier Capuçon, giving recitals and masterclasses across the USA culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. Lisa also performs a number of recitals this season with Giorgi Gigashvili. The season will also see her performing with Münchner Philharmoniker under the baton of Zubin Mehta, San Francisco Symphony with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2022/23 Batiashvili returned to New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as Wiener Philharmoniker as a featured artist at the Wiener Konzerthaus.
“She played with pure, gorgeous tone and fabulous technique... Could you have fairly asked for more? The audience, to judge from its standing ovation, was fully content.” (The New York Times)
Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album Secret Love Letters was released in August 2022, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as Franck Sonata with Giorgi Gigashvili.
Her previous 2020 recording, City Lights, marks a musical journey that takes listeners around the world to eleven cities with an autobiographical connection with music ranging from Bach to Morricone, and Dvořák to Charlie Chaplin. A twelfth city was added in 2022 with the release of her single Desafinado, celebrating Rio de Janeiro. At the internationally renowned Concert de Paris on Bastille Day in Paris in 2020 she performed the title track City Memories which was broadcast internationally.
An impressive discography also includes Visions of Prokofiev (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Séguin) which won an Opus Klassik Award and was shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim),Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann), and Shostakovich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Bastiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartók’s Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).
She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, the Choc de l’année, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).
Lisa was also Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt for 4 years between 2019 and 2022.
Lisa lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.
(BIOGRAPHY & PHOTOS)