Nino Gvetadze started her studies in her birthplace Tbilisi (Georgia) and then studied in the Netherlands with Paul Komen and Jan Wijn. In 2008, the pianist won the second prize, the press prize and the audience prize of the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht. Two years later she received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
Nino Gvetadze travels the world giving recitals and has made solo CDs with works by Chopin, Liszt, Musorgsky, Rachmaninov, Debussy and Brahms. As a soloist she has been a guest with companies such as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Joensuu Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductors with whom she has collaborated are Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Klaus Mäkelä, Jakub Hrůša and Jaap van Zweden. During the 2017 Prinsengracht Concert she performed with the Brodsky Quartet.
Nino recorded CDs for Brilliant Classics, Etcetera and Orchid and Challenge, with whom she recently recorded a new Brahms CD. She forms a critically acclaimed trio with Frederieke Saeijs and Maja Bogdanovic and teaches at the Codarts Conservatory in Rotterdam. She is co-founder and artistic director of the Naarden International Piano Festival and artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival.

Press and public describe Hannes Minnaar as a pianist who knows how to convey the essence of the music. They praise his spontaneity, natural play and ease, which does not get bogged down in superficiality. Minnaar won recognition at the Concours de Genève (2008, 2nd prize) and the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2010, 3rd prize), among others. In 2016 he was awarded the Dutch Music Prize.

Minnaar performs as a soloist and with orchestra throughout Europe and beyond. Herbert Blomstedt, Antony Hermus, Xian Zhang and Jirí Belohlávek are some of the conductors he has worked with. He is also a passionate chamber musician, including in the Van Baerle Trio, which he founded with Maria Milstein and Gideon den Herder. His recording of Beethoven’s Keizersconcert with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and Jan Willem de Vriend was chosen as a recommended recording by the BBC Radio 3 program Building a Library. His solo CDs are also praised. Gramophone wrote about his debut CD with works by Rachmaninoff and Ravel: ‘He is a convincing sound painter and an ardent Romantic. A natural talent with a daring streak.” About Nox, his CD with works by Schumann, Ravel and a specially composed cycle by Robert Zuidam, Het Parool wrote: “Minnaar joins the ranks of the great pianists of our time.” recording of the Goldberg Variations was also widely acclaimed, including a Diapason d’Or.

Highlights in the 2022-23 season include a recital of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 preludes and fugues opus 87 (which will also be released on CD), the Dutch premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Trauermarsch with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and James Gaffigan at a Saturday Matinee in the Concertgebouw and a recital program that he will perform in the United Kingdom.

Hannes Minnaar plays an Erard grand piano from 1858 at home, which he has on loan from the National Musical Instruments Fund.

The pianist Mariam Batsashvili gained international recognition at the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht 2014. Her musicianship seems to connect directly with one’s heart and her colours of sound, thoughtful interpretations and stupendous touch move and delight her audiences. As BBC New Generation Artist, she made her debuts at the Cheltenham Festival, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and with the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms. The summer of 2019 saw the release of her first album for Warner Classics and her second album has already been recorded.

She already gained her first experiences with leading symphony orchestras, including the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of James Gaffigan in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1), the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Rafael Payare (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Shelley (Liszt Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2). She has also given recitals in more than 30 countries – among these China, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, France, Spain, Norway, the Baltic countries, Benelux and Germany. She has been the guest of many international festivals, such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Piano City festival in Milan and the Piano aux Jacobins festival in Toulouse.

She was nominated by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) as ‘Rising Star’ for the 2016/17 season, and performed in the most significant concert halls throughout Europe. Last season, she gave performances at the Philharmonic Hall of St Petersburg, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Wigmore Hall and made her acclaimed debut at the Philharmonie Berlin as part of the series “Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur”.

Special highlights of the 2021/22 season are her recital debuts at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Rheingau Musik Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Schumannfest Dusseldorf, the Fundación Juan March Madrid and the De Bijloke Muziekcentrum Gent as well as orchestral concerts with the Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus (Clara Schumann Piano Concerto), with the Filharmonia Opolska (Clara Schumann Piano Concerto and Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1), with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Robert Schumann Piano Concerto) and with the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1).

Born 1993 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Mariam Batsashvili first studied with Natalia Natsvlishvili at the E. Mikeladze Central Music School in her hometown, before continuing at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar with Professor Grigory Gruzman. In 2011 she won First Prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, and received the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Award in 2015. Mariam Batsashvili is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and is supported by The Keyboard Charitable Trust. She has been an official Yamaha Artist since 2017.