Khatia Buniatishvili

Born in Georgia, Khatia Buniatishvili discovered piano at the early age of three. She gave her first classical music concert with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra when she was six and was subsequently invited to tour internationally with them. Buniatishvili’s musical mentors include Tengiz Amirejibi in Tbilisi and Oleg Maisenberg in Vienna. 

Among Buniatishvuili’s musical partners are some of the world’s leading conductors, orchestras, and international artists. She has performed under the batons of Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, Kent Nagano, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, and Philippe Jordan, and collaborated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, São Paulo State Symphony, China Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Filarmonica della Scala, Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Buniatishvili’s career has taken her to perform at venues around the world, such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Royal Festival Hall (London), Musikverein and Konzerthaus (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), La Scala (Milan), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Tonhalle (Zurich), Rudolfinum (Prague), Grand Theater (Shanghai), Beijing NCPA (Beijing), NCPA (Mumbai), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), and Esplanade Theatre (Singapore). She has participated in the Salzburg, Gstaad Menuhin, La Roque d’Anthéron, and iTunes festivals, as well as LA’s Hollywood Bowl, BBC Proms, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Progetto Martha Argerich. She is also a regular attendee of the Verbier Festival, where in 2011 she performed Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.

In addition to her solo career, Buniatishvili has also played in chamber ensembles with the violinists Renaud Capuçon and Gidon Kremer, in addition to numerous other international artists. On March 15, 2015, during her performance of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the regional Orchestra de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, she was asked by the musicians to become the orchestra’s patron, succeeding Brigitte Engerer.  

Buniatishvili’s discography includes albums, such as her 2011 debut album Franz Liszt, Motherland (2014), and Kaleidoscope (2016) under the SONY Classical label, as well as Kissine, Tchaikovsky: Piano Trios with Gidon Kremer and Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė (2011) and Franck, Grieg, Dvorak: Violin Sonatas (2014) with violinist Renaud Capuçon. Her second album, Chopin, featuring solo works as well as Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi, earned her rave reviews. The Guardian declared her “one of today’s most exciting and technically gifted young pianists”. She also collaborated with rock group Coldplay on their album A Head Full of Dreams (2015). Additionally, her discography includes Rachmaninov (2017) accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and two solo piano albums, Schubert (2019) and Labyrinth (2020). Thanks to her prolific artistic career, she was an ECHO Klassik Award winner twice, in 2012 for Franz Liszt and in 2016 for Kaleidoscope.

Concerned deeply for humanity, putting it at the center of all art, Khatia’s music goes hand in hand with her activism. She has been involved 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, and the United Nations’ 70th Anniversary Humanitarian Concert (2015) in Geneva, which benefited Syrian refugees. In fact, Khatia Buniatishvili sees musical festivals as a way to connect people, and she is eager to get new generations interested in classical music. In response to critics of her piano playing she says, “What people appreciate in my concerts, as they do in rock concerts, is that I give it all on stage. There is no limit to the performance, as if there is no tomorrow.”

Now a French national, Khatia Buniatishvili’s relationship with her native country is explored in the documentary Back Home in Georgia: Khatia Buniatishvili and Zubin Mehta. You can discover more of Khatia Buniatishvili with this documentary, plus interviews with her, all available in our online archives!