Mag. Tamara Achba-Kuzmichev

Tamara Achba grew up in a family of singers in Tbilisi, Georgia. At the age of four she received her first piano and composition lessons from her mother, Prof. S. Egorowa, and from Prof. L. Nikabadze. She continued her studies at the Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory in the classes of Prof. E. Russvili and Prof. L. Bakrazde and received four diplomas as a concert pianist, chamber musician, opera and song accompanist and teacher.

Tamara Achba is the winner of several competitions, including the Dmitri Kabalevsky Piano Competition, the Caucasian Piano Competition for Young Artists, the Tbilisi Philharmonic Piano Soloist Competition and the National Georgian Composition Competition of the Georgian National Television and Radio. At an early age she appeared as a soloist with the Georgian National Philharmonic and wrote several award-winning compositions for violin and piano, piano solo, and vocal duo.

Described by critics as an "incomparable, inspired pianist", she has played in Austria, Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Israel, USA, Japan, Korea and Mexico and has appeared at numerous international festivals such as l'Eté Musical in the Vallée du Lot, L'Eté Musical en Bergerac, Ankara Music Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival “Libertas”, Zarlino Festival di Musica da Camera, Tel Aviv Chamber Music Festival “Bridges” and Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad.

Numerous CD recordings and concert appearances in the Vienna Concert Hall, in the large ORF broadcasting hall in Vienna, in the Bösendorfer Hall, in the ballroom of the Austrian National Library, in the Flagey radio and concert hall in Brussels, in the Liszt Concert Hall of the Conservatory in Budapest, in the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Hall (Italy), in the Rose Theater Hall Fuji (Japan), in the Jacques Thibaud Conservatory Hall in Paris (France), Kaufman Hall in New York (USA) and other concert halls in London, Freiburg, Hanover, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Florence, Istanbul, Ankara , Prague, Warsaw and Moscow bear witness to her agile artistic activity.

With her album “1914”, released by Gramola, Tamara Atschba marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. A number of works were written during the war years. In her album, Tamara Atschba presents the following selection as a musical memory of the year 1914 together with her colleagues Louise Chisson, Matthias Adensamer, Alexander Znamensky and Christophe Pantillon: Preludes for Piano op. 38 and Piano Quintet in C minor op. 42 (1917/18) by Louis Vierne and the sonata for violin and piano op. 64 (1915/16) by Charles Koechlin. One of her CDs was included in the “Top10 classical” list of 2013 and published in “Artistxite Magazine”. In 2015 she started the project “Dialogue between music and lumieres – Homage to Scriabine – Synesthetic Perception: Alexander Scriabin's Color Hearing” at the French festival “L'Eté Musical en Bergerac”, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the composer's death.

Tamara Atschba is a long-time chamber music partner of the violinist Prof. Dora Schwarzberg, who said: “Tamara Atschba showed her sophisticated skills and her extraordinary musicality in numerous concerts.” The primarius of the Alban Berg Quartet praised her as an “outstanding partner for the entire chamber music repertoire.” Through her career, Tamara Atschba got to know fascinating artistic personalities such as Valentin Berlinsky, Claudio Abbado, Ruggero Ricci, Martha Argerich, Boris Berezovsky and Maxim Vengerov.

Her strong musical personality, the high quality of her playing and the extraordinary colors of her piano sound were praised by outstanding musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin, Zubin Metha (“such a wonderful and powerful sound!”), Vladimir Ashkenazy (“an exquisite piano playing”), Vladimir Krainev , Liana Isakadze, Wolfgang Marschner, Ivry Gitlis ("she's an amazing musician!") and Yuri Bashmet. In 2015, the book "Georgian - German Faces and Names" was published, in which in detail about the pianist Tamara Atschba ("Professor of Music from Georgia”) is reported.

Tamara Atschba has been frequently invited to master classes throughout Europe and Asia and as a juror at international music competitions. In 2015 she became a member of the “International Academy of Performing Arts and Sciences”. Tamara Atschba has been working as a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 1995 and taught at the Prayner Conservatory for Music and Theater from 2012 to 2020. Tamara Atschba has been a professor at the Franz Schubert Conservatory in Vienna since 2020. Several of her students are winners of international competitions.

She is also a duo partner of the French violinist Louise Chisson. In 2016, the two musicians founded Esperus Summer Music Academy in Monpasier, France.

Since 2016, Tamara Atschba has been Vice President of the Esperus Art Fund and President of Esp