Regina Shamvili is an American concert pianist and an artist of the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

, born in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

.

Shamvili graduated from both the Tbilisi State Conservatory

Tbilisi State Conservatory

Tbilisi State Conservatoire is the State Conservatoire of Georgia, located in the capital Tbilisi.-History:The Tbilisi Conservatoire was founded on 1 May 1917. It was formally recognised by the Russian Musical Society as a conservatoire later that year. A rival conservatoire was also founded in...

 and the Moscow Conservatory

Moscow Conservatory

The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...

. Studied with such legendary pianists as Maria Grinberg

Maria Grinberg

Maria Grinberg , was a Ukrainian pianist and teacher....

, Yakov Flier

Yakov Flier

Yakov Vladimirovich Flier was a Russian concert pianist and teacher.Flier was born in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Russia. He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov. By the 1930s he had become one of the most prominent Russian concert pianists...

 and Grigory Ginzburg

Grigory Ginzburg

Grigory Romanovich Ginzburg was a Jewish-born, Russian pianist.-Biography:Ginzburg first studied with his mother before being accepted as a student in Alexander Goldenweiser's class at Moscow Conservatory. In 1927 he gained fourth prize in the Warsaw International Frederick Chopin Competition...

. Recordings on the Melodia label in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

Shamvili has been a citizen of the United States since 1983. Concerts in over one hundred countries around the world. Venues ranging from Concord Pavilion in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 to Teatro Coloseo in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 to medieval Teatro Olimpico

Teatro Olimpico

The Teatro Olimpico is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy: constructed in 1580-1585, it is the oldest surviving enclosed theatre in the world. The theatre was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Renaissance, and was not completed until after his death...

 di Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...

... Recordings on the PolyGram

PolyGram

PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...

 (Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

) and VDE-Gallo Records

VDE-Gallo Records

VDE-Gallo Records is a small record label, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It specializes in world music and classical music.Under an ultimatum from the E & J Gallo Winery it was forced to change its name in the US. Exclusively in the American market it uses the name VDE-Gall....

 (Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

).

The US Ambassador of goodwill for the United States. Cultural programs under auspices the US Embassies around the world. "She reinforced the important role of culture in our bilateral relationship and marked a milestone in our cultural exchange activities" - John Negroponte

John Negroponte

John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. He is currently a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs...

.

UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 sponsored concerts in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The first Western musician in recent times to give live performances in the Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 - BBC Music Magazine

BBC music magazine

BBC Music Magazine is a magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Reflecting the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, the magazine is devoted primarily to classical music, though with sections on jazz and world music. Each edition comes...

. Command performances in Vatican City

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

 and Castel Gandolfo

Castel Gandolfo

Castel Gandolfo is a small Italian town or comune in Lazio that occupies a height overlooking Lake Albano about 15 miles south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills. It is best known as the summer residence of the Pope. It is an Italian town with the population of 8834...

.

Artist’s international appeal documented by the Bureau of Public Affairs

Bureau of Public Affairs

The Bureau of Public Affairs is the part of the United States Department of State that carries out the Secretary of State's mandate to help Americans understand the importance of foreign affairs...

 in a special TV presentation;
TROS

TROS

TROS is a Dutch television and radio organization part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting...

 (The Netherlands), BRTN (Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

}, Russia Today TV

Russia Today TV

RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....

 programs aired by National TV channels. CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 worldwide coverage of a return performance in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

External links

• Charitable programs with Mother Teresa
  Mother Teresa
  Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
  
  's Missionaries of Charity
  Missionaries of Charity
  Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious congregation established in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries...
  
   in Kolkata
  Kolkata
  Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
  
  (Calcutta).