About
Violinist Liana Gourdjia has been acclaimed for her “astonishingly pure tone, artistry and bewitching lyricism.”
Liana was introduced to the violin by her grandmother, a violinist of a “Mosfilm” orchestra, at the age of four. Her first debut as a soloist with an orchestra was at the age of nine. At the age of six, Liana appeared on Moscow television as a rising star and has since performed recitals, with her mother, a collaborative pianist at the Moscow State Conservatory, 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, performances and a subsequent CD release with the Melodia label for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 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 served as a soloist, concertmaster and recitalist. The Montgomery Symphony had proudly supported Liana’s debut recital CD with pianist Efi Hackmey. She will be returning to the Marlboro Music festival for the third year’s fellowship in the summer of 2012. Other most recent and upcoming performances include a debut recital at the Theatre de la Ville in January 2012, solo recitals in Switzerland, France in the U.S including Les Musicales de Colmar, the Juventus Festival, Salines en Musique and Festival International de Wissembourg.
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, Paul Haas, 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, Lawrence Power, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Marc Coppey, David Soyer, Antonio Meneses, Giovanni Belucci, François-Frederic Guy, Alexander Melnikov, Peter Laul, the Talich and the Vogler String Quartets among many other musicians. Liana has performed at festivals including the Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, Musique de Chambre de Lyon, 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 works, commissioned by her 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 American composer Eugene O’Brien.
Liana began her studies at the famous Central Music School at the Moscow State Conservatory with renowned professors Iryna Bochkova and Maya Glezarova. Upon graduating, she moved to the U.S. to continue her studies with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Liana received an Artist Diploma from the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, studying 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 at her degree recitals. Liana benefited from master classes with Menahem Pressler, Janos Starker, Gil Shaham, Alex Kerr, Pamela Frank, Arnold Steinhardt, Gabor Takacs and the Orion String Quartet. An avid reader, she is fluent in Russian, and English. Liana now lives in Paris, pursuing a career as a soloist and a chamber musician as well as studies in French.
