Born in the Georgian Black Sea city of Batumi on June 21, 1987, pianist Khatia Buniatishvili entered the professional spotlight in her early twenties after collecting major competition honors, prompting Sony Classical to place her under contract and launch an extensive worldwide touring schedule. Georgian folk traditions have shaped certain aspects of her interpretive approach. Concentrating on technically demanding repertoire, she cultivates highly personal readings that elicit both fervent admiration and sharp criticism. Her expanding Sony Classical discography now encompasses the 2024 release Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23.
Her older sister Gvantsa, likewise a pianist, has shared the stage with her on multiple occasions. Khatia began keyboard studies at age three and, three years later, appeared as soloist with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra. After relocating to the capital, she attended the Tbilisi Central Music School under Tengiz Amiredjibi and participated in summer sessions led by Michel Sogny. During a 2003 Tbilisi competition, pianist and teacher Oleg Maisenberg heard her and recommended further training in Vienna at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. The relocation proved decisive: by the close of the 2000s she had secured top awards at the Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists and the Artur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Command of Georgian, Russian, German, French, and English facilitated broad international travel. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, among other leading groups, and made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2008. She is featured on the 2010 album Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2009.
Buniatishvili returns regularly to festivals including Verbier, Progetto Martha Argerich, and Chamber Music Festival Lockenhaus. In chamber settings she has partnered with violinists Renaud Capuçon, Gidon Kremer, and Lisa Batiashvili. Her Sony Classical association began with the 2011 debut recording Khatia Buniatishvili Plays Franz Liszt; the following year her Chopin album received the Echo Klassik Young Artists’ Award. She has continued issuing largely nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century virtuoso works for the label. The 2020 recital Labyrinth presented an eclectic program extending from Bach through Philip Glass to Serge Gainsbourg. Buniatishvili makes her home in Paris and returned there in 2024 with the Sony Classical album Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23.
