Tsotne Zedginidze

Born into a family of musicians, Tsotne Zedginidze is a descendant of Niko Sulkhanishvili, considered one of the greatest Georgian composers of all time, and a renowned pedagogue, Anastasia Abdushelishvili-Virsaladze (whose students included Lev Vlassenko, Eliso Virsaladze, and Dimitry Bashkirov).

From a very young age, Tsotne showed a keen interest in opera, ballet, and instrumental and vocal music. At two years old, he could recognize and name different instruments. He began learning the piano at the age of five under his grandmother, Nino Mamradze, herself a pianist and teacher. His progress was remarkable; at only six years old, he performed elementary piano repertoire and started studying sonatas by Clementi, Scarlatti, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as Bach’s Inventions for two and three voices, and pieces by Grieg, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Prokofiev. His extraordinary sight-reading abilities allowed him to accurately interpret many of these works on the first read. It was during this time that he developed a growing interest in opera, devouring Italian opera as well as works by Wagner and Strauss.

At six years old, Tsotne Zedginidze began composing and discovered 20th and 21st-century music. He continued his study of opera by playing voice scores of various operas on the piano, including Berg’s Lulu, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. As a self-taught composer, he developed and personalized his style by experimenting and seeking new composition techniques. He always maintained a great interest in opera, eagerly watching productions from major opera houses worldwide.

Tsotne Zedginidze gave his first recital in Tbilisi in June 2019, where he performed works by Berg (Sonata, Op. 1), Bach, Shostakovich, and Janáček, along with a selection of his own compositions. A few months later, he performed at the Telavi International Music Festival organized by Eliso Virsaladze and participated in the opening of the season of the Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra, where he played Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and his own works under the direction of Nikoloz Rachveli. This concert was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In December 2019, with the support of the Paata Burchuladze’s Iavnana Foundation, Tsotne gave a solo recital at the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

In June 2020, Tsotne premiered his piece “The Bells” for piano, composed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, dedicated to the memory of his mother, Irene Sulkhanishvili.

In September 2021, Tsotne premiered his Sonata for Violin and Piano alongside Lisa Batiashvili and a piano duo with Sandro Nebieridze at the Tsinandali Festival. He participated in the ArtDialog international festival in Switzerland, performed at the Rachmaninov Museum in Villa Senar (also in Switzerland), and took part in masterclasses with Boris Berezovsky. In November 2021 and June 2022, Tsotne was invited to give recitals at Schloss Elmau. His concerts were highly praised by the audience, including the renowned pianist Grigory Sokolov, who said, “Tsotne’s compositions fit into the monumental world of Bach and Brahms.”

In 2022, at the invitation of Lisa Batiashvili, Tsotne gave a solo recital at the Audi Sommerkonzerte in Ingolstadt, Germany, where he premiered his Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra alongside the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and Nikoloz Rachveli. In July 2022, the pianist made his debut at the Verbier Festival, broadcast on medici.tv. With violinist Marc Bouchkov, he presented the opening of the Verbier Festival on medici.tv. Additionally, medici.tv produced a multi-episode conversation series between Tsotne and Marc Bouchkov, titled “Meet Tsotne.”

During the 2022-2023 season, Tsotne Zedginidze performed in Paris during a concert in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Mezzo television channel at the Cirque d’Hiver. He was also invited by Lahav Shani to participate in rehearsals for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Rotterdam. Furthermore, he performed at the Kissinger Sommerfest and participated in the concert held at the Wiener Konzerthaus by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation. During the summer of 2023, he gave a solo recital at Schloss Elmau and a chamber music concert with the renowned violinist Marc Bouchkov. He also gave recitals at the Verbier Festival 2023 and the Tsinandali Festival 2023, both events broadcast on medici.tv.

For the 2023-2024 season, Tsotne is invited to perform in Brussels, Munich, Berlin, and at Schloss Elmau. Among other works, he will interpret Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the Bavarian Youth Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle.

Since 2021, Tsotne Zedginidze has received support from the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation: he participates in various foundation concerts and receives material support for his studies. In December 2020, October 2021, and May 2023, with the foundation’s assistance, Tsotne traveled to Berlin to attend masterclasses by maestro Daniel Barenboim and Jörg Widmann. Additionally, in April 2023, he went to London to perform alongside conductors Alfred Brendel and Antonio Pappano.

Tsotne continues his studies with his grandmother, Nino Mamradze. He has also received several online lessons from Rena Shereshevskaya, who teaches at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.

Georgian composer Giya Kancheli had these words: “Musicians as phenomenal as Tsotne are born once a century.” Pianist Eliso Virsaladze commented, “In my life, I have never met anyone as remarkable as this child.” In an interview, conductor and composer Nikoloz Rachveli quoted Daniel Barenboim himself about Tsotne: “Mozart is back in Germany, from Georgia.”