http://mariahorn.se/
Booking inquiries giorgio@swampbooking.com

Born on 21 June 1987 in Tbilisi, Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and her elder sister Gvantsa were introduced to the piano at an early age by their mother, an enthusiastic music lover. Playing four handed remains one of the sisters’ favourite activities.

Khatia’s extraordinary talent was recognized when she was very young. Aged six, she gave her début performance as soloist with an orchestra, and was subsequently invited to give guest performances in Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Israel and the USA.

Khatia prefers not to be regarded as a child prodigy: virtuosity for its own sake does not appeal to her. Above all, she embraces pianists from earlier generations such as Rachmaninoff, Richter and Gould. She admires her “favourite pianist”, Martha Argerich, for her uniqueness and, as a consequence, does not view Argerich as someone she should try to emulate. And since she regards herself as “wholly a person of the 20th century”, Khatia does not identify so much with pianists of today.

Khatia’s warm, sometimes sorrowful playing may reflect a close proximity to Georgian folk-music, which, she attests, has greatly influenced her musicality. Critics emphasize that her playing has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy, which she does not feel to be a negative attribute. “The piano is the blackest instrument,” she says, a “symbol of musical solitude”, which even a pianist must become accustomed to. “I have to be psychologically strong and forget the hall if I want to share it with the audience.”

During her studies at Tbilisi’s State Conservatoire, Khatia won a special prize at the Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists in Kiev in 2003 as well as first prize at the Foundation to Assist Young Georgian Musicians competition set up by Elisabeth Leonskaya. At the 2003 Piano Competition in Tbilisi, she became acquainted with Oleg Maisenberg, who persuaded her to transfer to Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Winner of the Bronze Medal at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in 2008, she was also distinguished as the Best Performer of a Chopin piece and as Audience Favourite.

Khatia Buniatishvili has given critically acclaimed solo recitals and chamber music concerts at such renowned venues as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Musikverein in Vienna. In 2008 she made her US concert début at Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall), performing Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. 

A BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2009-2011, Khatia regularly collaborates with BBC orchestras. In 2010 she receiveda Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and has been nominated by Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus as a Rising Star for
the 2011/2012 season.

Upcoming engagements will see Khatia Buniatishvili perform with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , the Orchestre de Paris and the Munich Philharmonic with Paavo Järvi. Recitals will also take her to Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris and the Wigmore Hall in London, with further appearances at, amongst other venues, the Verbier Festival, the Lucern Festival and the Schwetzinger Muisktage. 

Khatia Buniatishvili is fluent in five languages and lives in Paris.

Composer José Luís Ferreira (b. 1973, Lisbon) made his First Degree in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, in 2001, where he studied with Christopher Bochmann, António de Sousa Dias and António Pinho Vargas. He attended several composition courses, workshops and seminars in Portugal with Emmanuel Nunes, Salvatore Sciarrino, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, Per Anders Nilsson, Trevor Wishart and André Bartetski.
Presently, he's a PhD Music researcher on the subject Computer Music/Mixed Music at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) in Oporto/ CITAR (Research Center For Science and Technology in Art).
His music, for different kinds of instrumentation with or without electronics, has been performed by several portuguese musical ensembles (Remix Ensemble / Orchestrutópica / Sinfonietta de Lisboa / Ricercare / Saxofínia/ Machina Mundi/ Son D'arte Electric Ensemble/ Machina Lirica).
In 2001, he won the Festival Musica Viva's acusmatic composition competition with the piece “Le bruit d`une tête qui frappe contre les murs d`une très petite cellule”
He also works as a musical assistant (computer music) withseveral composers performers/ensembles, namely: Pedro Rodrigues, Francisco Monteiro, Luís Tinoco, Orchestrutópica, Orquestra Metropolitana, Machina Mundi Machina Lirica and Son D'arte Electric Ensemble.
Since 2002, José Luís Ferreira has lectured several courses at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and Faculdade de Belas Artes.

Ler em voz alta para alguém é um ato de carinho, é dedicação e entrega ao outro pelo tempo que a narração durar e perdura na memória de quem dá e de quem recebe. É um momento que assume uma intensidade de compromisso: somos um e estamos dentro de um enredo. Estamos lado a lado... Somos. É um irmão que lê para o outro, uma Mãe que lê para um filho, um amigo que consola quem mais precisa... Estamos. Somos.

Estas narrações, considerações sobre as obras e tantas outras coisas bonitas em www.contoaoouvido.com

Reading out loud is a show of affection, is dedication and commitment to others for as long as the story lasts and it lingers in the memory of the storyteller and the listener. It is a moment that assumes an intensity of dedication: we are one and we are within a plot. We are side by side ... Us. A sibling reading to another sibling, a Mother reading to a child, a friend comforting someone in need ... We are. Us.

The stories are read in European Portuguese. Please feel free to visit  www.contoaoouvido.com There you will learn more about the authors and their work and lots of fun stuff.

Grammy-winning Pianist, composer and entertainer from Canada, living in Europe.

MirandA is following