Giorgi Latsabidze

Giorgi Latso (Georgian: გიორგი ლაცაბიძე; born 15 April 1978, Tbilisi) is a Georgian-American virtuoso pianist and movie composer.

Latso started to play the piano as a boy and was giving concerts at the age of 10. He was given a presidential scholarship from the Georgian government to study in the Tbilisi Conservatorium. When he was 24, he won a DAAD scholarship to study music at the Hannover Hochschule in Germany and later continuied study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He later moved to Los Angeles to study with Stewart Gordon at the USC Thornton School of Music.

In 1998 he won the first prize in the Nikolai Rubinstein Competition in Paris, third prize in the Ennio Porrino Competition in Cagliari Italy and then, in 2005, he won first prize in the Yehudi Menuhin Federation Competition in Salzburg and in 2006 Young Artist International Piano Competition in Los Angeles.

His concert career has taken him worldwide across five continents – North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. He is known for his playing of the works of Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt. He recorded 24 Etudes (Op.10; Op.25) of Chopin all 12 Transcendental Etudes of Liszt, 12 Preludes (Book II) of Debussy, 24 Preludes, Op.28 of Chopin; among others.

His concerts have been broadcast on radio and television in the USA, Europe, Asia and other countries. ^[1] Latso was listed in the 65th edition of Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in American Art 2011.

He has taught at the University of Southern California, Azusa Pacific University, at Glendale Community College. ^[2]

Latso has recorded a CD of the entire piano-violin repertoire by composer Ignatz Waghalter for Naxos Records, with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, violinist Irmina Trynkos and conductor Aelxander Walker. He made his performance debut at the acclaimed Wigmore Hall,^[3] London in 2010 and at Berliner Philharmonie concert hall in Berlin in 2012. ^[4]

In 2012, Latso got an invitation to Vatican City to perform for the Pope Benedict XVI. to perform a Mozart Concerto in C major (Elvira Madigan) K. 467 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome. ^[5]