Baya Kakouberi
Piano

Daredjan"Baya" Kakouberi was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. After hearing her playing, one has to agree with her teacher, Vladimir Krainev, who wrote "a very talented pianist-virtuoso, whose brilliant and temperamental style of performance instantly calls for thankful reaction among listeners..." about her.

Ms. Kakouberi made her piano debut at the age of eleven. After graduating from Tbilisi Special School of Music for the Talented and Gifted, she entered the Moscow Conservatory, where she continued her piano studies on the Master's and Doctoral levels under the tutelage of famous pianist and professor Sergei Doresnsky and the Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist, Vladimir Krainev.

Ms. Kakouberi has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Moscow, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Italy, and the United States. She has appeared as a host and soloist on Georgian Television and has recorded with the Moscow Philharmonic on Melodia Records and with the “Allegro Sinfonia” in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1996, Ms. Kakouberi was among the "World's Ten Most Distinguished Pianists" chosen by the Palm Beach International Piano Competition. In the summer of 2000, she was chosen as recipient of the "Most Outstanding and Distinguished Pianist" award in the IBLA International Competition in Italy. In addition to her solo recitals, she has appeared as guest soloist in concerts throughout the United States and Europe, including performances at Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and Cerritos Center for Performing Arts in California, to name just a few. As a chamber performer, Ms. Kakouberi made her debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York in February, 2002.

Noted as an outstanding chamber music artist, Ms. Kakouberi is the Artistic Director of the "Blue Candlelight Music Series" in Dallas, Texas, where she enjoys collaboration with internationally renowned artists such as Paul Rosenthal, Eugene Osadchy, and Oleh Krysa. The program started as a venue for Ms. Kakouberi to introduce her musician friends from overseas to the American audience. It now puts on four concerts each year in a mansion living room that seats no more than 100 people. The music is broadcast on a classical station in the Dallas area.