Paris-based Georgian virtuoso pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in the music world and is considered one of the great and certainly popular concert performers of our time, with her electrifying stage presence.

The 27 year old has introduced to the piano at an early age by her mother and her extraordinary talent was soon recognised. She gave her debut performance as a soloist with a chamber orchestra at the age of 6 in her hometown of Tbilisi, although she did not regard herself as child prodigy.

Winner of the bronze medal at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in 2008, Khatia was also recognised as the Best Performer of a Chopin piece and the Audience Favourite.

Critics emphasise that her playing style, which is influenced by Georgian Folk music, has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy. Khatia sees this as a positive attribute. “The piano is the blackest instrument… a symbol of minimal solitude,” she said.

In his five star review in the Evening Standard of Khatia’s recent London recital, Barry Millington, under the headline “heart-melting, hair-raising and utterly intoxicating, ” said, “there are performers who exploit extremes of dynamic and tempo, but musically fail to convince. The Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is emphatically not one of those. She demonstrated keyboard magic of exceptional sensitivity… and jaw-dropping virtuoso technique.”

After that performance at Wigmore Hall last Wednesday evening I met the charismatic and charming Khatia at the artist’s entrance. We managed to find some shelter from the persistent drizzle under the doorway where she signed a couple of sketches with her distinctive flowing ribbon signature and kind comments for me.