Lisa Batiashvili

Violinist Lisa Batiashvili has built a thriving international profile both through solo engagements alongside the foremost orchestras and through intimate chamber collaborations in duos and ensembles of varying size. Her extensive recorded output, which has drawn consistent critical praise, spans a broad spectrum ranging from J.S. Bach and Beethoven through Prokofiev and Shostakovich to contemporary composers. Among the significant premieres she has introduced is the Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto, a score written expressly for her that she later captured on disc to widespread approval. Festival and subscription series across continents have featured her with ensembles of the highest rank, while recital and recording partnerships have linked her with pianists Hélène Grimaud and Till Fellner, violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Isabelle Faust, cellist Adrian Brendel, and oboist François Leleux, her spouse.

Born Elizabeth Batiashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1979, she grew up in a household headed by a violinist father and a pianist mother. A miniature violin was already in her hands before she turned three, and piano lessons followed during childhood. At eight she entered a Tbilisi conservatory for exceptionally talented youngsters. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the family relocated to Munich in 1990, the year she turned eleven. Further training took her to the Hamburg Musikhochschule under Mark Lubotsky and then to the Munich Musikhochschule with Ana Chumachenco. At sixteen she earned second prize in the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. Between 1999 and 2001 she held the title of BBC New Generation Artist, an affiliation that brought her 2000 debut at the BBC Proms. In 2001 she participated in the first recording of Olli Mustonen’s Concerto for three violins, issued by Ondine alongside Jaakko Kuusisto and Pekka Kuusisto.

Her schedule of major European and American engagements expanded rapidly in the ensuing seasons. August 2006 marked the world premiere of the Lindberg concerto at Avery Fisher Hall, delivered with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under Louis Langrée. Recording affiliations have included EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, and EuroArts. A 2007 exclusive contract with Sony yielded the Beethoven Violin Concerto and a coupling of Mozart and Britten works. The London premiere of Giya Kancheli’s Broken Chant for violin, oboe, and orchestra took place in 2008 with Leleux and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Subsequent releases encompass the 2011 Deutsche Grammophon album Echoes of Time, surveying pieces by Shostakovich, Kancheli, Rachmaninov, and Pärt; a 2013 ECM collection of Harrison Birtwistle chamber music featuring Brendel; the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, recorded in 2014 with the Staatskapelle Dresden, of which she was named Kapell-Virtuosin; and a 2017 Deutsche Grammophon pairing of the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky concertos led by Daniel Barenboim with the Berlin Staatskapelle. In 2020 she issued the album City Lights, assembling music tied to cities central to her biography.

Career honors comprise an Opus Klassik, a Choc de l’année, and a MIDEM Classical award, while Musical America designated her Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015.