Tsotne Zedginidze

“Phenomenal musicians like Tsotne are born once in a century.” (Giya Kancheli)

From early childhood, Tsotne Zedginidze showed great enthusiasm for opera, ballet, instrumental and vocal music and today is becoming internationally recognised as a pianist and composer of extraordinary talent.

During season 23/24 Tsotne performs in solo recital at the Amare den Haag, Bozar in Brussels, Lucerne Festival with Lisa Batiashvili and together with both Batiashvili and Jörg Widmann at Schloss Elmau and as part of their residencies at the Berliner Philharmoniker. He debuts in Japan in two recitals in Osaka and Tokyo and with the Bayerisches Landesjugendorchester under Sir Simon Rattle playing Schönberg’s Piano Concerto.

Tsotne gave his first public piano recital in Tbilisi in June 2019 followed by a performance at the Telavi International Music Festival and season opening concert with the Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra performing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2 under the baton of Nikoloz Rachveli. In 2020 Tsotne premiered his composition ‘The Bells’ for piano, composed during the Covid-19 quarantine and dedicated to the memory of his mother, Irene Sulkhanishvili.

Since then, Tsotne has performed a number of his own compositions across Europe. His Sonata for Violin and Piano, written for and performed with Lisa Batiashvili, was premiered at the Tsinandali Festival alongside his piano duo with Sandro Nebieridze, and he appears at the Verbier Festival every season bringing new works.

Tsotne has also participated at the international festival ArtDialog in Switzerland, performed at the Rachmaninov Museum at Vila Senar and at Schloss Elmau, and, by the invitation of Lisa Batiashvili, performed a solo recital and premiered his “Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra” at the Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt, with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and Nikoloz Rachveli.

Highlights of the 22/23 season included a performance at the 25th Anniversary of Mezzo TV at Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, as well as performances at the “Kissinger Sommerfest” and as part of a Lisa Batiashvili Foundation concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus. During summer he returned to Schloss Elmau for solo recital and a chamber music concert with violinist Marc Bouchkov.

Tsotne has a close relationship with Medici TV, and you can find his performances from Verbier and the Tsinandali Festival among others on their platform.

Tsotne, born into a family of musicians, is a descendent of Niko Sulkhanishvili, who is considered to be one of the greatest Georgian composers, and a famous professor, Anastasia Abdushelishvili- Virsaladze. By the age of two he was able to distinguish and name different musical instruments. Tsotne began piano lessons at five, studying with his grandmother and professor, Nino Mamradze and he has also received several online lessons from Rena Shereshevskaya, a professor at Alfred Cortot Music School of Paris.

At the age of six, Tsotne began composing. Self-taught as a composer, he developed and personalized his composing style through musical experiments and a search for new compositional techniques.

Since 2021, Tsotne is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, and with the help of the foundation, Tsotne has received masterclasses from maestro Daniel Barenboim and Jörg Widmann and has played for maestros Alfred Brendel and Antonio Pappano.

2023/24 season only. Please contact the artist, if you wish to edit this biography