Anita Rachvelishvili became internationally known when on December 7th 2009, the opening night of the La Scala season, she sang the title role in Carmen opposite Jonas Kaufmann as Don José, in a production staged by Emma Date and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This performance, which was her first of any major role in the West and which was her debut in the role, was also televised all over the world.
 
She has since debuted as Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper München, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Seattle Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Teatro Regio in Turin, with the Canadian Opera Company, and at the Arena di Verona, as well as making a return in the role to the Teatro alla Scala. Anita Rachvelishvili made her Netherlands debut when she sang her first Dalila in a concert performance of Samson et Dalila at the Concertgebouw. She has also been heard Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. In the fall of 2011 Anita Rachvelishvili debuted at Carnegie Hall alongside Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann as the Principessa di Bouillon in Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur. Other roles in her repertoire have also Isabella in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri at the Scala, and the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and at the Festival de Peralada I. In the 2012/2013 season the artist sang the role of Amneris in Aida for the Michigan Opera Theater for the first time. Anita Rachvelishvili returned to the Staatsoper Berlin in as Lyubasha in the new production of Rimsky Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, staged by Dmitry Cherniakov and conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

 
Performances for the 2013/2014 season include appearing as the Konschakowna in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Borodin’s Prince Igor which will be the first time the company has performed this work since 1917. Rachvelishvili will also make her debut at the Teatro all’Opera di Roma as Carmen, and returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich in the same role. Earlier in the season, she sang as Carmen at the Staatsoper Berlin and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She also returns to the Arena di Verona this season as Carmen and as Amneris in Aida.
 
Engagements in future seasons include a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Carmen, her Paris Opera debut as Amneris in “Aida”, “Samson et Dalila” in Berlin and Sao Paulo, Azucena in “Il Trovatore” at Covent Garden and concerts of the Verdi Requiem at the Salzburg Festival.
 
Anita Rachvelishvili was born in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. She at first studied piano at the Mukhran Machavariani School and then singing at the Vano-Sarajishvili Conservatory with Manana Egadze. She received a stipend from the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, and in 2007 won the Paata Burchuladze Prize. While still a student at the conservatory, she debuted at the Opera in Tblisi as Maddalena in Rigoletto and as Olga in Eugen Onegin, subsequently joining the ensemble of the theater in the fall of 2006. In 2007 she was invited to join the Accademia at the Teatro alla Scalla, it was there she was heard by Daniel Barenboim, who then invited her to star in the new production of Carmen which opened the 2009/2010 La Scala Season.
 
photo credit: Salvatore Sportato

David Aladashvili official site | David Aladashvili on Facebook | David Aladashvili on Instagram

David Aladashvili, hailed as a “sensitive virtuoso born for the stage,” began taking piano lessons at age eleven and at age fifteen was accepted into the prestigious Tbilisi Special Music School where he earned Georgia’s Presidential Scholarship for Piano Performance. In 2007, David was invited to join the pre-college division of The Juilliard School in New York City. David continued his studies at Juilliard for the next six years where he was awarded several honors, including the Susan W. Rose scholarship. While at Juilliard, David studied under Matti Raekallio and Jerome Lowenthal, receiving his Bachelor’s in 2012 and his Master’s in 2014.

David has participated in many international competitions, given recitals and appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Europe and America. He participated in Georgia’s International Competition for Young Pianists in 2001 and Moscow’s Vladimir Spikanov International Festival in 2005. David was awarded the Grand Prix at the Nikolai Rubenstein Piano Competition in 2006 in Paris. He has also participated in Sag Harbor’s Vladimir Nielsen Piano Festival in 2008 and 2009 and Salzburg’s International Summer Academy in 2011 and 2013 where he studied with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Dmitri Bashkirov.

David gave his Carnegie Hall debut in 2010, when he performed a solo recital at the world-renowned Weill Recital Hall. Always aware of his roots and intensely connected to his country, David dedicated the concert to the 21-year-old Georgian luger who had met his tragic death in the qualification round for the Olympic games just days before. Performances in recent seasons include Chopin’s Second Concerto under Nikiloz Rachveli with the Georgian National Symphony Orchestra and a celebratory evening organized by David consisting of international music students brought together in a small orchestra to perform a program of all-Georgian music at The Juilliard School.

Well-known in his native country for his musical outreach to young people and his ongoing charitable musical activities, David is now pursuing his outreach programs to make classical music more accessible to young people on an international scale by giving recitals and organizing educational programs through his own not-for-profit organization, Young for Young. The organization invites young artists from around the world to perform for youth in need. David is an appointed guest artist of the Georgian government’s fine arts initiative.

David’s debut album entitled “Opus 13” features an eclectic and inviting grouping of new and old works organized around the number 13, the date of David’s birthday in April. The disc includes works of Scriabin and, Schumann, (his demanding Opus 13, the Symphonic Etudes) as well as thirteen new compositions written especially for David by thirteen promising young composers. In keeping with the theme, the album was released on Friday, December 13th, 2013, The New York Times called his renditions of Scriabin and Schumann “elegant and atmospheric” while the album boasts “plenty of delights and characterful surprises.”

David’s upcoming appearances include performances in US, Europe, Concert tour in South Africa as well as performances across his home country of Georgia, touring for the Al Bustan International Festival of Music and Performing Arts, and playing special recitals in Toronto as well as at Teatro alla Scala in Milan with Anita Rashvelishvili, with whom he regularly performs around the world.

David currently lives in New York City.