Virsaladze was born in
Tbilisi,
Georgian SSR. Her father Constantine Virsaladze was a doctor and scientist, so was her grandfather Spiridon Virsaladze. She received her first piano lessons at the age of 9 from her grandmother,
Anastasia Virsaladze, a well-known pianist and professor in Georgia. From the age of 9, she also started receiving lessons from
Heinrich Neuhaus up until his last days. She graduated from the
Tbilisi State Conservatory (Class of
Anastasia Virsaladze), and continued her education as a
postgraduate student at the
Moscow Conservatory with
Yakov Zak. She has also played for
A. Goldenweiser and
N. Perelman. She won the 3rd prize in the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962 and the 1st prize in the
Robert Schumann International Competition in
Zwickau, Germany in 1966.
Sviatoslav Richter described her as the best female pianist of her time and a leading interpreter of
Schumann. Virsaladze has been teaching at
Moscow Conservatory since 1967 (becoming a professor in 1993) and taught at the
University of Music and Performing Arts of
Munich from 1995 to 2011. From 2010 she has been teaching at
Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in
Florence, Italy. She is also a visiting professor at the
Tokyo College of Music. Among her most students are
B. Berezovsky,
A. Volodin,
A. Zuev,
J.H.Park,
T. Yang,
D. Shishkin. Since 1975, she has served on the jury of many international competitions, including the
Queen Elisabeth Competition,
Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition,
R. Schumann International Competition,
Géza Anda International Piano Competition,
International Tchaikovsky Competition,
Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition, and
Tbilisi International Piano Competition. Eliso Virsaladze speaks
Georgian,
English,
German,
French,
Italian,
Spanish,
Russian and
Polish. == Orchestras and chamber music ==