Violinist Lisa Batiashvili’s Foundation Names Scholarship Recipients

Five emerging artists have been selected for the program that offers tailored support, financial aid, and artist networks

Formed by Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili in 2021, the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation has named the first cohort of its annual scholarships program for exceptional musicians living on Georgian territory. 

The five recipients are violinist Anastasia Aghladze of the Barenboim-Said Academy; young pianist-composer Tsotne Zedginidze; pianists Sandro Nebieridze and Giorgi Sajaia from the Munich Musikhochschule, and Giorgi Gigashvili of the Geneva University of Music.

All five Young Supported Artists will receive the continued support of a monthly scholarship, which will contribute to their higher education for the academic year. 

Additional opportunities include recommendations of mentors or auditions, masterclass and competition arrangements, travel expense coverage, instrument acquisition advice, artist management suggestions, artist promotion, and meetings with top soloists and conductors.

The five recipients were selected personally by Batiashvili with the Foundation’s advisory board, which comprises Lydia Connolly, Nino Gvetadze, François Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud, and Nikoloz Rachveli.

“[We aim to] lastingly contribute to the development of exceptional musical talent and to pave the way for musicians with insufficient financial means to enter their professional life,” the Foundation states on its website. “Our focus is set on the personal development of young people by supporting their musical education and their first steps into the professional music world.”

A graduate of the Hamburg Musikhochschule, Batiashvili was a laureate at the Sibelius International Violin Competition at age 16. Since then, she has performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, her latest album City Lights was released in 2020. She currently serves as artistic director of the opera company Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt.

She plays a 1739 Guarneri del Gesù violin — generously loaned by a private collector.