Tsinandali Award winners in arts, sciences revealed to public

Young talents of Georgia's arts and sciences scenes were honoured on Tuesday in Tbilisi, where the National Palace hosted the latest edition of the annual Tsinandali Award.

Eight prize-winning nominees were unveiled to an invited public in a range of fields from music to natural sciences, as has become customary for the awards that distinguish the next generation of scientists and artists in the country.

Teenage pianist Sandro Nebieridze, winner of the 2016 Moscow Grand Piano Competition and laureate of the 2015 Astana Piano Passion and 2012 Balys Dvarionas International Piano Competition, was recognised with the Music Award.

The ceremony also singled out contemporary artist Lado Lomitashvili, recipient of the inaugural Zygmunt Waliszewski Visual Arts Award from earlier this year, in the Visual Arts category. Lomitashvili is also winner of Georgia’s first award for photobook artists.

Chemist Ana Gogolashvili was distinguished for her work published in magazine Chromatography A. Photo via Tsinandali Award.

The full list of Tsinandali Award recipients for 2019:

• Natural Sciences Award: Ana Gogolashvili
• Humanitarian Sciences Award: Otar Gabunia
• Theatrical Art Award: Gega Gagnidze
• Cinema Art Award: Giorgi Tsereteli
• Visual Arts Award: Lado Lomitashvili
• Music Award: Sandro Nebieridze
• Literary Fiction Award for Poetry: Nini Eliashvili
• Literary Fiction Award for Prose: Datia Badalashvili

Poet Nini Eliashvili was one of eight recipients of the prize. Photo: Dirk Skiba Fotografie.

Winning nominees also included Tbilisi-based poet Nini Eliashvili, whose work has been published in Georgian literary magazines since 2016 and theatre director Gega Gagnidze, a graduate of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University.

In a new and special section, pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, winner of this year's Piano Competition ‘City of Vigo’ in Spain, was announced as Nominee of the Year.

Recipients of this year's prize also scooped money prizes of GEL 4,000 each, while nominees were awarded by sponsor companies of the awards.

The occasion featured artists - including former nominees in previous editions of the prize - in a show providing a celebratory backdrop for the ceremony. Theatre director Guram Matskhonashvili, nominated in 2017, worked on the staging.

Founded in 1998 under the auspices of the late chairman of Georgia's parliament Zurab Zhvania, the awards were re-established after a break in 2014 by then-president  Giorgi Margvelashvili. It is now organised by the Zurab Zhvania Foundation.