Khatia Buniatishvili

Khatia Buniatishvili was born on June 21, 1987, in Batumi, Georgia. She began studying piano at the age of three under her mother’s guidance. Her talent was evident early on, as she gave her first concert with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra at six years old and performed internationally by the age of ten. She honed her skills studying in Tbilisi with Tengiz Amirejibi and later in Vienna with Oleg Maisenberg at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen, Buniatishvili undertook intensive training with French pianist and pedagogue Michel Sogny, focusing on his innovative piano methodology at the Villa Schindler in Austria. Her older sister, Gvantsa Buniatishvili, is also a pianist, and they have performed together on several occasions.

Buniatishvili’s professional career saw significant progression when she signed with Sony Classical as an exclusive artist in 2010. Her debut album in 2011 featured works by Liszt, including his Sonata in B minor, Liebestraum No. 3, and Mephisto Waltz No. 1. She became a regular attendee of the Verbier Festival, performing Liszt’s Sonata in B minor there in 2011. In 2012, she released her second album, “Chopin,” which included solo piano works and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris and conducted by Paavo Järvi. This album was critically acclaimed, with The Guardian noting her playing as “straight from the heart from one of today’s most exciting and technically gifted young pianists.”

Over the years, Buniatishvili has collaborated with numerous renowned conductors and orchestras, performing in major concert halls across the globe. Her discography includes several albums with Sony Classical, such as “Motherland” (2014), “Kaleidoscope” (2016), “Rachmaninoff” (2017) with the Czech Philharmonic, “Schubert” (2019), “Labyrinth” (2020), and “Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23” (2024) with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Her ability to attract a diverse audience, including a younger generation, is attributed to her charismatic presence and deeply humanistic interpretations. On December 7, 2024, she was a featured artist at the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, showcasing her continued prominence in the classical music world.