The 28-year-old was the Jean Sibelius Competition's youngest competitor ever when she received its second prize at age 16. She has since been a soloist with top orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductors with whom she has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph von Dohnšnyi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel and Yuri Temirkanov.

Her former teachers include Ana Chumachenko of the Musikhochschule in Munich and Mark Lubotski at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg.

Named one of BBC's New Generation Artists in 2001, Batiashvili released that year her first CD on the EMI Classics label with works by Bach, Brahms and Schubert.

As a chamber musician, she has played in festivals such as Edinburgh, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Saratoga, Schleswig-Holstein, Kuhmo and the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade.

She has committed herself to new music by giving the world premieres of Nicholas Bacri's double concerto for violin, oboe and chamber orchestra, and Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto.

Batiashvili will release in September an album on Sony BMG of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Sakari Oramo. She also plans to record the Beethoven Violin Concerto and a new work by Giya Kancheli.

Now living in Munich with her husband, Fran‹ois Leleux, and their daughter, Batiashvili plays on the 1709 Engleman Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.