Award-winning artists to bring classical music to unconventional Tbilisi locations

Four Tbilisi events starting next week will bring classical sound to venues that do not usually host concerts, with prized artists including Kolja Blacher and Dang Thai Son headlining the second edition of the Classical Music in Alternative Environment series.

Between December 6-14, Blacher and Son will be part of a line-up of Georgian and foreign talent bringing museum and literary venues alive with works by Mozart, Bach and more.

Launching at the Simon Janashia National Museum of Georgia, one of Georgian National Museum venues, the series will open with German violinist Blacher and Turkish-American pianist Özgür Aydin.

Blacher, a soloist frequenting high-profile orchestras from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Munich Philharmonic, recently headlined the Telavi International Music Festival in Georgia's east, while Aydin has been acclaimed for his performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas and 5 concertos as well as Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

See a Kansas City Live! interview with pianist Dang Thai Son about his life and performances:

In the second show two days later, the Writers' House of Georgia, a venue with a long history tied to the Georgian literary scene, will host Opera Camerata, a chamber group of artists from the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre, as well as violinists Júlia Pusker and Eva Rabchevska, who arelaureates of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Brussels.

Going back to the Museum of Georgia, the series organisers will bring Canadian-based Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son, the first Asian pianist to win the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, to a Tbilisi audience before the closing concert at the Youth Art Palace.

The latter will showcase the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, a "leading Polish symphony orchestra of young musicians" (organisers of the series) led by Georgian conductor Mirian Khukhunaishvili, and Szymon Nehrin, a 2017 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition-winning pianist.

Launched last year, the Classical Music in Alternative Environment series aims to promote the music in spaces beyond the conventional, purpose-built venues and attract audiences from beyond concert halls.