Lisa Batiashvili Named Artist-in-Residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker

The Georgian violinist will step into the role for the 2023/24 season

As the newest Artist-in-Residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker, Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili will give a number of performances with the orchestra as a concerti soloist and chamber musician. She will also play alongside the young players of the orchestra's Karajan Academy.

Her concerto appearances with the orchestra will include the less well-known Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1, while the chamber music concerts will cover composers such as Dvořák, Gija Kantscheli, Tchaikovsky, Spohr, and Louise Farrenc.

In addition, Batiashvili will give a chamber music concert with clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann. They will be joined by pianist Denis Kozhukhin and the prodigious 14-year-old pianist and composer Tsotne Zedginidze, on a program of Widmann, Zedginidze, Prokofiev, and Bartók.

In April of 2024, Batiashvili will play the Brahms concerto — a work she has performed many times, though never with the Berliner Philharmoniker — alongside conductor Daniel Barenboim, whose public appearances are becoming steadily less frequent.

"For me this is a dream come true!" Batiashvili said. "This residency is the continuation of a longstanding friendship with the orchestra."

"It gives me the opportunity not only to perform as a soloist in orchestra concerts, but also to realize chamber music projects with the musicians. And I'm really looking forward to working with Principal Conductor Kirill Petrenko for the first time."

"I grew up in what was then the Soviet Union with recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic, which really impressed me," she added. "I longed to perform with this orchestra one day. That seemed totally unrealistic at the time, but then it became true! For me as an artist, it is always a celebration to get together with the Berliner Philharmoniker."

You can hear Batiashvili performing the Brahms Double Concerto alongside cellist Truls Mørk, conductor Simon Rattle, and the Berliner Philharmoniker below.