First Prize winner 10th Liszt Competition

On 8 November 2014 Mariam Batsashvili (Georgia, 1993) won First Prize at the 10th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht. She received her prize in the main hall of TivoliVredenburg, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Máxima. “Winner Batsashvili turns every phrase into something special”, headlined Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Batsashvili also took home the Junior Jury Award and the Press Prize. The International Press Jury called her a “complete artist” with a “tremendous toucher” and full “sincere emotion”.

Batsashvili is the first female First Prize winner of the Liszt Competition. As winner she will embark on an extensive concert tour, taking her to more than 30 countries. Already the morning after the Finals in Utrecht’s TivoliVredenburg she made her debut in a sold-out main hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Together with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of James Gaffigan, she once more performed Liszt’s Concerto No. 1 in E flat major.

Mariam Batsashvili studied successively at the E. Mikeladze Central Music School in Tbilisi with Natalia Natsvlishvili and at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar with Grigory Gruzman. She won prizes from various competitions in Georgia, Germany and Spain. Aside from her native country, Mariam has performed in such countries as Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, South Africa, both in recital and with orchestra. She was a soloist with the Erfurt Philharmonisches Orchester and with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on numerous occasions.

2015 - 2017
In the coming years, Batsashvili will work with renowned orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. She will also play at festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, Pianofortissimo Festival Bologna and Delft Chamber Music Festival. The tour will cover 24 countries including China, Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, Georgia, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Mariam Batsashvili has been selected as a ‘Rising Star’ by ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) for the season 2016/17. As a Rising Star she will perform a concert tour across 21 of the most prestigious venues of Europe, including Musikverein Wien and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Mariam Batsashvili is a scholarship holder of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.



The jury and the press about Mariam Batsashvili:

“Above all a player with the greatest refinement and taste. It's the sort of playing that brings out the best in Liszt's music." – from the jury report

“Batsashvili convinced the jury with an athletic pace and a poetic tone.” - de Volkskrant (the Netherlands)

“Batsashvili played firm, was mimble-fingered in the pirouettes on the piano and sensitively delicate when necessary.” – De Telegraaf (the Netherlands)

“She played with a natural nobility and excelled with her singing, transparant tone.” – Trouw (the Netherlands)

“The passionate winner Mariam Batsashvili excelled in a varied approach, a personal story with a lot of poetry.” – NRC Handelsblad (the Netherlands)