Batumi Black Sea Music and Art Festival line-up brings award-winning artists to the city

Internationally celebrated musical artists including pianists Alexander Gadjiev and Lydie Solomon and clarinetist Claudio Mansutti will join UNESCO Artist for Peace Elisso Bolkvadze and other acclaimed performers in this year’s Batumi Black Sea Music and Art Festival starting next week.

In Georgia’s Black Sea coastline city, the prized artists will be part of a line-up bringing a ten-day celebration of classical music masterpieces to audience, while Michel Sogny, a renowned music teacher will lead master classes on piano education.

Gadjiev, winner of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and the Monte-Carlo World Piano Masters Competition, will step onto the stage of the Batumi Drama Theatre on the second day of the festival, to be joined by flutist Luisa Sello and Georgian conductor David Mukeria.

See pianist Alexander Gadjiev perform Shostakovich at the 2016 ‘Young Interpreters and Great Masters’ Piano Festival:

Their performance of works by Vivaldi, Shostakovich, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georgian composer Vazha Azarashvili will follow the opening evening of the event involving Bolkvadze — whose ‘Lira’ Charity Foundation organises the festival — Mukeria and guitarist Claudio Piastra.

The programme for the seventh edition of the Batumi-based event will also showcase Mansutti, a winner of five chamber music competitions and Artistic Director of the Teatro Luigi Bon and Music Art Director of Mittelfest.

Pianist, actor and composer Solomon, praised for her wide-ranging artistic talent, will join the roster of performing acts in Batumi with a recital of Beethoven and Ravel, after Georgian pianist David Aladashvili and conductor Giancarlo de Lorenzo also appear in the programme over the preceding evenings of the festival.

Festival-goers will also get to see young pianist Alexandra Massaleva, a student of Sogny who has performed at venues including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, in a recital concert of music by Liszt and Sogny.

A gala concert of young musical talent and an “art camp” involving up to 300 young visitors will stress the festival’s focus on the upcoming generation. In addition, Bolkvadze — a widely recognised pianist — will offer master classes to the next generation of piano performers at the event.

While the main thrust of the festival lies with the musical element, the event will also offer space for creatives in other artistic fields, hosting an exhibition by French-based painter and illustrator Henri Matchavariani and poetry evening featuring Guram Odisharia.

Established in 2013, the festival is held under the patronage of the President of Georgia, with organisers placing a particular importance on making it accessible to young talent from various regions where opportunity for musical education is often scarce.

This year’s festival is set to run between September 1-10, with the full programme available here.