Liana was introduced to the violin by her grandmother, a violinist in a Mosfilm orchestra, at the age of four. Her debut as a soloist with orchestra came at the age of nine. At six, Liana appeared on Moscow television as a rising star and has since performed concertos with orchestras and recitals with her mother, a collaborative pianist at the Moscow State Conservatory, in many prestigious venues throughout Russia including the Great Hall and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the Philharmonic Hall in Saint Petersburg.
As a laureate of the prestigious New Names Foundation in Moscow and a fellow of the Spivakov Foundation, she performed in the Vatican for Pope John Paul II, released a CD with the Melodiya label for the performances at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and was invited as a young talent to the International Colmar Festival. Liana Gourdjia became a laureate of the Tchaikovsky International Competition for Young Artists in Sendai, Japan, at the age of fourteen, and subsequently appeared numerous times on television and radio programs dedicated to presenting young stars in Russia and Europe. Winner of the Sion-Valais International Competition, Liana has also won prizes at the Michael Hill, Corpus Christi, and Hudson Valley International Competitions.
She has soloed with orchestras of Lille, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Moscow Philharmonic, Zagreb Soloists, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Asheville Symphony, CityMusic Cleveland, the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, among others, under the direction of François-Xavier Roth, Andrew Grams, Daniel Hege, Paul Haas, James Gaffigan, Shlomo Mintz, Carl Topilow, Thomas Hinds, David Effron, and Sergei Stadler.
As an active chamber musician, Liana Gourdjia has collaborated with such artists as Jaime Laredo, Lawrence Power, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Marc Coppey, David Soyer, Antonio Meneses, Giovanni Bellucci, François-Frédéric Guy, Alexander Melnikov, Peter Laul, and members of the Talich, Vogler, Juilliard, Guarneri and Tokyo String Quartets, among many others. She has performed at festivals including Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, Musique de Chambre de Lyon, the 92nd Street Y in New York, Les Musicales de Compesières in Geneva, Les Musicales de Colmar, and is a laureate of the Juventus Festival in France. She was awarded a three-year fellowship at the Marlboro Music Festival, where she had a chance to collaborate with Mitsuko Uchida, Leon Fleisher, and Kim Kashkashian.
A proponent of contemporary music, she has frequently premiered works commissioned by her from prominent and upcoming composers. She is a member of the Paris-based Ensemble Variances under the direction of Thierry Pécou and served as a concertmaster of the New Music Ensemble at Indiana University under the direction of David Dzubay.
Liana began her studies at the famous Central Music School of the Moscow State Conservatory with renowned professors Iryna Bochkova and Maya Glezarova. Upon graduating, she moved to the U.S. to continue her studies with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. Liana received an Artist Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, studying with Jaime Laredo, and was the first recipient of the prestigious Jacobs Scholarship.
An avid reader, she is fluent in Russian, French, Spanish and English. Liana now lives in San Sebastián where she is a professor at Musikene – Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco and guest concertmaster with Euskadiko Orkestra. She continues to serve on the faculty of the École Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred Cortot”.
Liana’s CD releases include Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Radio Philharmoniker Saarbrücken and works for violin and piano with pianist Katia Skanavi, released on the Audite label, as well as the Complete Violin Sonatas by Charles Ives with pianist Matan Porat, for the Printemps des Arts label in Monte Carlo.