Liana Gourdjia, violinViolinist 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, with her mother, an accompanist 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. Her performance highlights include concerts in the Vatican for Pope Jean Paul II, at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and for Unesco in Paris. She 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. 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 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. She made her debut recital at the Paris Théâtre de la Ville in January 2012.

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 performed as a soloist 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. 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 Compesières 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 by prominent and upcoming composers. She served as concertmaster of the New Music Ensemble at Indiana University under direction of David Dzubay, with whom she performed 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. She went on to study in the U.S. with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. She received an Artist Diploma from the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, studying with Jaime Laredo and where she was the first recipient of the prestigious Jacob’s scholarship. 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.

Press reviewsThe Herald Times, 2011
.. what one heard was always right on the mark, clear and tidy and, where subtlety was called for, astonishingly pure. Artistically, she was also able to find, beneath and within often acerbic figures, a bewitching lyricism. At times, music and interpretation became hauntingly suggestive of musical poetry.
And when she came to the concerto's middle movement, the biting, mischievous Scherzo, Gourdjia proved she was ready for the game and capable of conquest...

L'Alsace - Husseren-Wesserling - 'A new level has been reached' - October 21, 2010
On Saturday night concert for the Credit Mutual de la Thur bank, Jacques Humbert, President of the South Alsace district announced one of his precepts: 'In music, there are no relationships without listening.' There were indeed warm and rich relationships, between the violin virtuoso Liana Gourdjia and the audience.

Fully focused, the violinist revealed a baroque soul to serve Bach well, with cadences, marvelous vibrato and astounding musicality. Liana mastered the music of Sibelius with maturity. She did not spare the lyrical passages and played with great finesse and an innate sense of legato.

But, it was especially with Tchaikovsky, in his «Melody», that she allowed her exceptional talent to shine. By her technical command and the magnificent sonorities, drawn from her violin, she offered a remarkable rendering. In this work she created a palpable emotion through her serene and poetic bow. One must not forget her accopmanist, Karine Selo from the Paris Conservatory, who was able to adapt to the playing of the violinist with finesse, while enriching it frequently with superb nuances.

Les Dernières Notes, October 19, 2010
An amazing concert Saturday evening at the Musicales du Parc de Wesserling with guest soloist, the Russian violinist, Liana Gourdjia. The last notes of «Melody» by Tchaikovsky concluded softly as if regretfully leaving the hand and the bow. After having played J.S. Bach and Sibelius, Liana returned to her country of birth to chant the soul of the land of her Russian heritage with fire and music of dancing and singing of the soul and bow, mirroring that of magic baton. It was a blessed moment.

The Bach C Major Violin Solo Sonata had already announced a musician who is one with her vioiln. Not trying to hide her emotions, with face from time to time seemingly tortured, and, by contrast, in a graceful passage, showing the hint of smile before she freed it imperceptably. When the bow flies over the strings, her movement becomes full, with hands trembling and her face like that of a Madonna watching over her child.

The audience allows itself to slip into the safety of delight and follow her when she mounts the paths of passion. The work of Sibelius «Three Pieces for Violin and Piano» displayed a beautiful accord between the pianist Karin Selo and Liana Gourdjia, each listening to one another and one with keys dancing on the piano, the other tickling the strings with zest, creating a beautiful moment of poetry and emotion, shared as well by the audience.

ClassicInfo, July 5, 2010
Le concert restera donc dans les mémoires pour sa seconde partie, consacrée au Trio N°1 de Brahms... Ce soir, ce sont Liana Gourdjia, Marc Coppey et Julien Libeer qui sont à la manœuvre, et qui y atteignent des hauteurs qui ne sont pas souvent fréquentées. Les trois musiciens sont exemplaires à de multiples niveaux : techniquement parfaitement au point, ils dominent la partition sans faiblir, et offrent des sonorités individuelles et collective somptueuses. Les trois tempéraments s’allient de manière admirable: Liana Gourdjia et Marc Coppey sont des complices-nés, et s’entendent à un degré difficile à égaler, tout en rivalisant d’ardeur, de fougue et de générosité...

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RepertoireConcertos

Bach E-Major, BWV 1042
Barber G-Major, op. 14
Bartok N°2, Sz.112
Beethoven D-Major, op. 61
Bruch N°1 in G-minor, op. 26
Brahms D-Major, op. 77, Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A-Minor, op. 102
Elgar B-minor, op. 61
Glazunov A-minor, op. 82
Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, op. 21
Mendelssohn E-minor, op. 64
Mozart G-Major, KV216 D-Major, KV218 A-Major, KV219
Nielsen Op. 33
O'Brien Taking Measures
Prokofiev N°1 in D-Major, op. 19 & N°2 in G-minor, op. 63
Sibelius D-minor, op. 47
Shostakovich N°1 in A-minor, op. 77
Stravinsky D-Major
Tchaikovsky D-Major, op. 35
Vieuxtemps N°5 in A-minor, op. 37
Wieniawski N°2 in D-minor, op. 22


Sonatas and Short Pieces

Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas
Beethoven Complete Violin Sonatas
Brahms Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Corelli La Follia
Dvorak Four Romantic Pieces, Slavonic Dances, Sonatina for Violin and Piano
Dzubay (b.1964) Delicious Silence
Franck Sonata in A Major
Gershwin / Heifetz Porgy and Bess, Three Preludes
Kreisler Preludium and Allegro, Caprice Viennoise
Mozart Sonatas in E minor, K. 304, in G Major, in B flat Major
Paganini Caprices, N°1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, Cantabile, Campanella
Prokofiev Sonata N°1 in F minor
Ravel Sonata in G Major, Sonata Posthume, Habanera
Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Sonata in d minor, Valse - Caprice
Szymanowski Nocturne and Tarantella, Three Myths
Stravinsky Duo Concertante, Suite Italienne
Tartini Devil's Trill
Tchaikovsky Melodie, Valse-Scherzo
Webern Four Pieces op. 7
Wieniawski Variations on the Original Theme
 

Chamber Music

Bartok String Quartets N°s 2 & 3
Beethoven Piano Trios op. 70 no. 2, Kakadu Variations, Archduke
Brahms Complete Piano Quartets, Piano Trios op. 8 in B Major and op. 87 in C Major, String Sextet in G Major N°2
Christian Duo for Violin and Harp, Nuclear Winter, Mares
Dvorak Piano Quintet, op. 81
Dzubay Kukulkan
Franck Piano Quintet in F minor
Ives Trio for Violin, Clarinet, Piano
Prokofiev Sonata for two violins
Ravel Piano Trio in a minor, Duo for Violin and Cello
Shostakovich Piano Quintet, op 57, Piano Trio N°2 in E minor
Schoenberg String Sextet Transfigured Night
Schubert String Quartets N°14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' & Rosamunde
Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor, String Sextet Souvenir de Florence

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