Born into a family of musicians in Moscow, Karine Georgian began her cello studies at the age of five under her father, later studying at the Moscow Conservatoire under Rostropovich. After taking the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Third Tchaikovsky International Competition, she launched an international career that has spanned all the countries of the former Soviet Union, Eastern and Western Europe, the Far East and the United States, starting with the American première of Khachaturian's Cello Rhapsody with the Chicago Symphony conducted by the composer (her recording with the composer and the Moscow Bolshoi Radio Symphony Orchestra has recently been reissued by Melodiya/BMG Classics).
Today, Karine Georgian is a seasoned performer with a vast experience of concert platforms across the world, having appeared with many of the leading orchestras and conductors of our time. Her repertoire encompasses more than forty concertos and a huge range of instrumental and chamber music. She has been associated with many leading composers of our day, many of whom have worked with her and written works for her. These include Alfred Schnittke (of whose First Cello Concerto she gave the US première in Carnegie Hall in 1989), Edison Denisov, Tigran Mansurian, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alexander Goehr, Dmitri Smirnov (Cello Concerto, premièred with the BBC Philharmonic under Yan Pascal Tortelier in 1996), Howard Skempton, and Elena Firsova (Chamber Concerto No. 5). In 1994 she made her first visit to Australia to give the Australian première of Britten's Cello Symphony, returning there for a further tour last summer. Among last season's more enjoyable engagements were a major UK tour with the Moscow Philharmonic under Yuri Simonov, and a gala concert celebrating the Festival of the August Moon televised live from the Forbidden Palace in Beijing.
In 1980 Karine Georgian settled in London and two years later succeeded André Navarra as Professor of Cello at the Musikhochschule in Detmold in Germany. Much in demand as a teacher, in addition to the Detmold position she has recently taken up an appointment at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She has given masterclasses in England, Italy, Germany, Japan and Austria, and annually since 1989 (except for 1998) has taught and played at Dartington.
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