French-Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili began studying the piano with her mother at age three, and performed with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra at six. She attended the Tbilisi Central Music School, where her teacher was Tengiz Amiredjibi, and she continued her studies at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Oleg Maisenberg. Buniatishvili won prizes at the Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists, the Foundation to Assist Young Georgian Musicians Competition, and the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, where she was also named the Best Performer of a Chopin Piece and Audience Favorite. She has performed as a concerto soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. Buniatishvili is fluent in Georgian, French, English, German and Russian. She has recorded for Sony Classical, Erato, and ECM.
