Berlin, Potsdam shows to highlight Georgian opera, classical music stars

Georgia’s opera and classical music stars will travel to the Berlin metropolitan area to delight listeners with two shows later this month, ahead of the country’s showcase presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.

Acclaimed German-based pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili, conductor Vakhtang Kakhidze and soprano Nino Machaidze will be among a line-up of performers that will take to the stage on September 26 and 27.

In the first event, scheduled to be held at Berliner Philharmoniker, an opera gala will put a spotlight on eight soloists from Georgia.

Machaidze will be joined by fellow soprano Iano Tamar as well as Nutsa Zakaidze and Ketevan Kemoklidze in the roster.

The other part of the opera line-up will showcase Badri Maisuradze, artistic director of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre, along with George Oniani, Mikheil Kiria and Ramaz Chikviladze.

Their performance will be augmented by the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra led by Kakhidze in an 8pm show featuring arias, quartets and ensemble pieces from operas by composers including Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini and Antonín Dvořák.

The very next day, the Nikolaisaal venue in Potsdam will bring Kakhidze and the Tbilisi orchestra to its stage, where they will be joined by pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili.

The Berlin-based artist first moved to Germany in 1998 to study under the guidance of famous Georgian pianist Elisso Virsaladze at Munich's High School of Music and Theatre.

She later graduated from New York's Mannes College of Music and debuted at the city’s famed Carnegie Hall in 2006.

Mazmanishvili is a recipient of the Dorothy MacKenzie Award of the International Keyboard Festival as well as the Nadia Reisenberg Award, among other prizes.

Her Carnegie Hall performance was called "staggeringly virtuosic and powerful" by music critic Harris Goldsmith in a piece for Classical Music Review.

The Nikolaisaal show will feature the Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven and Symphony No.9 by Antonín Dvořák.

The two shows are designed to fall within events in the run-up to Georgia’s participation in next month’s Frankfurt Book Fair as the official Guest of Honour.

The build-up programme has introduced Georgian artists, authors and culture to audiences in Germany since last year.