Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

This year’s 11th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival will be organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture. The festival will traditionally open on the Day of National Music - September 18.

The festival will bring together world-famous musicians from Russia, China, Turkey, the U.S., Italy, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia, including the Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra, Silk Road Philharmonic Ensemble, Sergey Roldugin, Khatia Buniatishvili, Alena Bayeva, Miroslav Kultyshev, Sergey Dogadin, Philipp Kopachevsky, Velichka Yotcheva, Evgeny Avramenko, Lorenzo Tatsieri, Dmitri Khokhlov, Alexander Hajiyev, Margarita Alexandrovich, Murat Salim Tokac, Regina Rustamova, Jabrayil Ibrisov, Giorgi Chelidze, Umid Israfilov and others.

Forty spectacular events await the guests of the festival until September 30.

Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will perform at the Heydar Aliyev Palace on September 22 as part of the 11th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival.

The concert program will feature works by national composers Fikrat Amirov, Niyazi and Elmira Nazirova. The pianist will perform together with the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rauf Abdullayev.

Born in Georgia, Khatia Buniatishvili discovered piano at the early age of three. She gave her first concert with Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra when she was only six years old.

Throughout her career, the pianist has performed at venues around the world, such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Royal Festival Hall (London), Musikverein and Konzerthaus (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, Theatre des Champs-Elysees (Paris), La Scala (Milan), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Palau de la Musica Catalana (Barcelona), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Tonhalle (Zurich), Rudolfinum (Prague), Grand Theater (Shanghai), Beijing NCPA (Beijing), NCPA (Mumbai), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), and Esplanade Theatre (Singapore). Khatia has participated in the Salzburg, Verbier, Gstaad Menuhin, La Roque d’Antheron, and iTunes festivals, as well as LA’s Hollywood Bowl, BBC Proms, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Progetto Martha Argerich.

Buniatishvili has performed under the batons of Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, Kent Nagano, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, and Philippe Jordan, and collaborated with the Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Filarmonica della Scala, Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, etc.

Her discography includes Franz Liszt (2011), Chopin (2012), Motherland (2014), and Kaleidoscope (2016) under the SONY Classical label, as well as Kissine, Tchaikovsky: Piano Trios with Gidon Kremer and Giedre Dirvanauskaite (2011) and Franck, Grieg, Dvorak: Violin Sonatas (2014) with violinist Renaud Capuçon. She also collaborated with rock group Coldplay’s latest album A Head Full of Dreams.

Buniatishvili is two times ECHO Klassik Award winner in 2012 for Franz Liszt and 2016 for Kaleidoscope.

Khatia studied in Tbilisi with Tengiz Amirejibi and in Vienna with Oleg Maisenberg.

Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli was formed in 1920, being one of the first orchestras in the Soviet Union, at the request of composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. The first master of the orchestra was an experienced conductor M. I. Chernyakhovski.

Many great works of world music such as those of G. Mahler, I. Stravinski, C. Debussy, A. Bruckner, J. Brahms and others occupy honorable place in the repertoire of the orchestra. The orchestra is an active participant of "Music of the 20th Century" organized by R. Abdullayev and Festival of M. Rostropovich, which is held annually. Since 2007, the orchestra has been participating in summer festivals In Italy.

Ticket prices for the 11th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival is 15-150 manats ($9-88). They can be purchased at all ticket offices of Baku, ASAN Centers, Ganjlik Mall, 28 Mall and online at www.iticket.az.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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