Open Air Concert | Georgian National Philhamonic | Dudana Mazmanishvili | Carlo Ponti

Berlin-based pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili was born in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, and began her musical journey at the tender age of three with piano lessons from her mother Tamar Apakidze. By the age of eight, she had already made her debut with the Georgian State Orchestra. Following her studies with the famous Georgian pianist Elisso Virsaladze in Munich, she honed her skills in New York under the tutelage of famous American pianist Jerome Rose.

Dudana Mazmanishvili has been a prize-winner in numerous international piano competitions, including the Busoni Competition in Bolzano. Her Carnegie Hall debut was described by Harris Goldsmith in the New York Classical Music Review as "breathtakingly virtuosic and powerful." She was named "Rising Star of the Year" by Musical America. Highlights of her career include performances at the Phillips Collection in Washington, the Munich Philharmonie Gasteig, as well as appearances at Salle Cortot in Paris, and the Musikverein in Vienna, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Invited by Daniel Barenboim, she gave a recital at the Klavierfestival Ruhr, which was broadcast by German Culture Radio. Invited by Daniel Hope, Dudana Mazmanishvili was featured as a guest in the arte project Hope@Home, and she performed as a soloist at the invitation of the Einstein Foundation in the Grand Broadcast Hall of Berlin Radio.

In addition to her concert career, she is a diplomat, a member of the European Cultural Parliament, and the founder of Tbilisi Piano Fest.

Carlo Ponti is known for taking audiences of all ages on musical journeys of unique interpretive depth. He has worked at the Conductor’s Institute in Connecticut under Harold Farberman, with Andrey Boreyko, Mehli Mehta and Zubin Mehta in Los Angeles, and furthered his musical studies in Austria at the Vienna Music Academy under Leopold Hager and Erwin Acel.