About
Violinist Liana Gourdjia has been acclaimed for her “astonishingly pure tone, artistry and bewitching lyricism.” At the age of six, Liana appeared on Moscow television as a rising star and has since performed recitals in many prestigious venues throughout Russia including the Great Hall and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the Philharmonic Hall in Saint-Petersburg. Some of her performance highlights include concerts in the Vatican for Pope Jean Paul II, and for Unesco in Paris. Liana Gourdjia became a laureate of the Tchaikovsky International Competition for Young Artists in Sendai in Japan at the age of fourteen and subsequently appeared numerous times on television and radio programs dedicated to presenting young stars in Russia and Europe.
Liana Gourdjia was awarded the 2009-2011 residency with the Montgomery Symphony in US, where she serves as a soloist, concertmaster and recitalist. She will be returning to the Marlboro Music festival for the second year’s fellowship in the summer of 2010. Other most recent and upcoming performances include a solo recital and a masterclass at The Indiana University, chamber music programs at Les Musicales de Colmar, the Juventus Festival and Salines en Musique in France and solo appearance at the Sion festival in Switzerland.
Winner of the Sion-Valais International Competition, Liana has also won prizes at the Michael Hill, Corpus Christi, Hudson Valley and Kingsville International Competitions. She has soloed with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ashville Symphony Orchestra, City Music Cleveland, the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of Indiana University and the Cleveland Institute of Music under Daniel Hege, James Gaffigan, Shlomo Mintz, Carl Topilow, Thomas Hinds, David Effron, Steven Smith, and Sergei Stadler.
As an active chamber musician, Ms. Gourdjia has collaborated with such artists as Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Antonio Menesis, Jeremy Menuhin, Paul Meyer, Lawrence Power, David Soyer and the Talich String Quartet. Liana has performed at festivals including the Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, the 92/Y in New York, Les Musicales de Compesieres in Geneva, Les Musicales de Colmar, and is a laureate of Juventus festival in France. A proponent of contemporary music, she has frequently premiered new works for violin from prominent and upcoming composers. She served as a concertmaster of the New Music Ensemble at Indiana University under direction of David Dzubay, with whom she soloed in the Violin Concertino by acclaimed composer Eugene O’Brien.
Liana Gourdjia began her studies at the Central Music School at the Moscow State Conservatory with renowned professors Iryna Bochkova and Maya Glezarova. She moved to the United States to continue her studies with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Liana received an Artist Diploma from the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she studied with Jaime Laredo. At the Indiana University she was the first recipient of the prestigious Jacob’s scholarship, and was subsequently awarded the Performance Certificate in recognition for outstanding performances as part of her degree recitals. Liana benefited from masterclasses with Menahem Pressler, Janos Starker, Gil Shaham, Alex Kerr, Pamela Frank, Arnold Steinhardt, Gabor Takacs and the Orion String Quartet.
