Award-winning Georgian pianist Mariam Batsashvili performs at Castleton

Renowned Georgian concert pianist Mariam Batsashvili, who has performed recitals in more than 30 countries, will perform Mariam Batsashvili: Keyboard Charitable Trust Concert Sunday, Oct. 15, at 4 p.m., at Castleton.

The Castleton in Performance (CiP) concert will include a variety of classical pieces by Bach, Chopin, and Liszt.

At only 24 years old, Batsashvili already ranks among the most promising pianists of her generation, having first received international recognition at the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in 2014, where she won First Prize, the Junior Jury Award, and the Press Prize. The London-based Keyboard Charitable Trust’s mission is to help talented young pianists build a professional musical career.

Tickets for this CiP 21st Anniversary concert range from $20 to $40, and the performance will be held in the Theatre House at Castleton (663 Castleton View Road, Castleton, VA.), an intimate, state-of-the-art 140-seat proscenium theatre.

Call 703.489.8704 for more information and visit www.CastletonFestival.org to purchase tickets.

“Mariam has traveled the world performing some of the most beautiful classical pieces,” said Burnett Thompson, director of CiP. “We are thrilled to have her showcase her talents for our audiences.”  The German newspaper,Süddeutsche Zeitung, writes that Batsashvili’s performances are, “A thousand great moments: Batsashvili creates a dark poetry, and her performance displays an objective wisdom.”

Batsashvili’s Castleton repertoire will begin with Bach’s Concerto in D minor after Alessandro Marcello BWV 974, including the Andante spiccato, the Adagio, and the Presto; Liszt’s Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s Almira S 181; and Chopin’s Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante Op. 22, including the Andante spiccato and the Polonaise. An intermission will follow, and the program will conclude with Liszt’s Sonata B minor S 178.

“Mariam turns every phrase into something special,” headlined Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad of Batsashvili’s performances. The international Jury called her a “complete artist” with a “tremendous touch” and “sincere emotion.”

Batsashvili was born in 1993 in Tbilisi, Georgia. By 2011 she had already won First Prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, and later received the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Award in 2015. She has led the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. Batsashvili has also given recitals in more than 30 countries, including China, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, the United States. She has been the guest of many international festivals, including the Beethovenfest Bonn, Pianofortissimo Festival Bologna, and the Delft Chamber Music Festival.

Batsashvili was nominated by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) as a “Rising Star” for the 2016/17 season, and performed in concert halls throughout Europe, including the Philharmonies of Paris, Cologne and Luxembourg, the Vienna Musikverein, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Müpa Budapest, L’Auditori in Barcelona, the Stockholm Concert Hall, the Southbank Centre in London, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. She performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra in Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne. Batsashvili is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. She has been an official Yamaha Artist since 2017.

“Our audiences are in for a special treat.” said Castleton CEO and Artistic Director Dietlinde Maazel. “It is rare that an artist at such a young age combines virtuosity with an extraordinarily profound insight, sensitivity and passion!” In 1997, Dietlinde and her husband, Maestro Lorin Maazel, converted the once-overlooked chicken house into today’s Castleton Theatre House, one of the most exquisite performance spaces in the world.

The Keyboard Charitable Trust helps the most gifted musicians perform on international stages, with débuts in London, New York, Mexico, Berlin, Rome, and other music capitals. Over the past 25 years, the Trust has presented more than 200 young international pianists, historic keyboard players, and organists (aged 18-30) in concerts worldwide. With such notable musicians as the late Claudio Abbado and Alfred Brendel among its trustees, this formula has proved its worth.

Castleton is ideally suited for a weekend trip and a variety of accommodations are available on the idyllic grounds of Castleton Farms. Cottage and home rates begin at $100/night and include access to amenities such as the spa (large heated lap pool, Turkish steam room, Finnish sauna), bowling alley, petting zoo, six miles of hiking trails, and tennis courts. To inquire about booking, please contact Connie Payne at 540.577.8820 or[email protected].

The grounds of Castleton Farms have been home to a prestigious performance series since 1997, when the late Maestro Lorin Maazel inaugurated the Theatre House (a former chicken coop for 15,000 hens converted into a “mini-Globe” European-style pocket theatre with unparalleled acoustics) together with his renowned friends, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Since then, CiP has given audiences in Rappahannock County multicultural experiences of the highest caliber bringing internationally acclaimed artists into our own backyard. Artists have included Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Itzhak Perlman, José Carreras, Emanuel Ax, Sir James Galway, Gil Shaham, the Paris Piano Trio, Mariachi Los Camperos Group, Chinese traditional soloists Wu Man and Ma Xiaohui, classical guitarists Pepe Romero and Berta Rojas, Indian dance companies, and famous actors such as Alec Baldwin and Claire Bloom.

In 2009 Maestro Maazel and his wife Dietlinde Turban Maazel established the Castleton Festival, a combination of music festival and summer academy for young artists. During this period, Dietlinde developed a wildly popular acting training studio for opera singers. Ranked by The New York Times as one of the top 10 festivals in the country, the Castleton Festival formed an educational partnership with Wynton Marsalis, his Summer Jazz Academy, in 2015. The monthly CiP (Castleton in Performance) events continue throughout the year as well as the Educational Community Outreach programming that furthers Castleton’s mission of nurturing the arts in the lives of children through in-school programs.