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Elisso VIRSALADZE |
Elisso Virsaladze grew up in a family in Tiflis, which was for generations involved on the art and culture in Georgia. She received her first piano instruction from her grandmother, Professor Anastasia Virsaladze. After attending the conservatory, she left her native city and went to Moscow. She was twenty years old as she won the third prize in the famous Tchaikovsky Competition.
In Moscow she continued her studies with Henrich Neuhaus and Yakov Zak. These gifted teachers had not only a deep influence on her artistic development, but also immersed her in the renowned tradition of Russian piano pedagogy. It is therefore not surprising that she is recognised today as an exceptional teacher whose students have won sensational recognition at competitions. Moscow conservatory and Munich Musikhochshule have made Elisso Virsaladze a regular professor and there is hardly any important international competition where she has not been invited to take part in the jury. Santander, Geza Anda in Zurich or Rubinstein in Tel Aviv or Tchaikovsky in Moscow to mention only a few where she is regularly invited. Next to go is Japan (June 04), Portugal (July 04), Santander in 05, Munich in 06 and Brussels in 07.
Her deepest love is for the composers of the late 18th and 19th centuries, especially Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann. At the age of twenty-four, she won the first prize at the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, and she has been described by the international press as one of the great contemporary interpreters of Schumann.
At the same time, the pianist is well known for her wide repertory up to and including modern Russian composers. The Soviet Union has honoured her with its highest artistic awards.
Elisso Virsaladze regularly performs in London, Milano, Rome, Paris, Lisbon and Barcelona, duo concerts with Natalia Gutman in Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Munich, Milan, Geneva and Lausanne, to name only the most important European cities. In chamber music and with orchestras such as Petersburg Philharmonic or Royal Philharmonia London she has toured North America, Japan and Europe extensively. Besides this Elisso Virsaladze regularly appears with prestigious orchestras in France, Germany, Italy, Spain Switzerland, the US and other countries.
In the ¾ season Elisso Virsaladze gave recitals in Europe mainly – among them Wigmore Hall, London and Conservatorio Verdi, Milano as well as orchestra concerts in the US, Russia, Japan and Europe
Elisso Virsaladze has worked with conductors such as Rudolf Barshai, Kyril Kondraschin, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Sanderling, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Evgeny Svetlanov, Juri Temirkanov or Antoni Wit – to name only a few.
The label Live Classics where
numerous recordings have been published opens a wide perspective onto
the musical personality of Elisso Virsaladze.