She was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. Her father Constantine Virsaladze was a prominent physician, so was her grandfather Spiridon Virsaladze. She received her first piano lessons at the age of 8 from her grandmother, Anastasia Virsaladze, a well-known music teacher and pianist in the Georgian SSR. She graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory, and continued her education as a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory. She studied with Yakov Zak and Heinrich Neuhaus. She won the third prize in the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962 and the first prize in the Schumann Competition in Zwickau in 1966.

Virsaladze has been teaching at Moscow Conservatory^[1] since 1967 (She became a professor in 1994) and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany, since 1995.

Among her students are many winners and laureates of international piano competitions: B. Berezovsky, E. Voskresenskaya, V. Bronevetsky, Y. Katznelson, A. Volodin, D. Kaprin, M. Kolomiytseva, A. Osminin, L. Akopova, L. Bustani, M. Nahapetov, Regina Chernichko, O. Macheratini, E. Mirkasimova, D. Shishkin, Dinara Klinton (Nadzhafova).

Orchestras and chamber music

Since 1966, Eliso Virsaladze has given recitals and appeared with major international orchestras under Yevgeny Svetlanov, Kyrill Kondrashin, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Sanderling, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Virsaladze enjoys playing chamber music, partnering with Natalia Gutman, the Borodin and the Taneyev Quartets. She participates as a jury member in many international piano competitions. She is an interpreter of Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin, as well as of modern Soviet and Russian composers. Live Classics has recorded most of her broad repertoire.

She was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1971, and of People’s Artist of the USSR in 1989.

Laureate of the national prize of the GDR named after R. Schumann (1976).
Laureate of the state prize of the Georgian SSR named after sh. Rustaveli (1983).
Laureate of the State prize of Russia (2000).
Holder of the order” for services to the Fatherland ” IV degree (2007).

Laureate of the VII world festival of youth and students in Vienna (1959, 2nd prize, silver medal);
All-Union competition of musicians in Moscow (1961, 3rd prize);
The II International competition named after P. I. Tchaikovsky (1962, 3rd prize, bronze medal);
IV international competition named after R. Schumann in Zwickau (1966, 1st prize).