Tsinandali Festival 2026 Opens on 3 September
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The Tsinandali Festival 2026 opens on 3 September and runs for eleven days at the Chavchavadze Estate in Kakheti, with 23 concerts on the programme. This is the eighth edition, and the first four orchestral nights are built around the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra. Anyone planning to be in eastern Georgia over the next two weeks should book beds and tickets now, because both go quickly once the festival starts.
Who Is Playing at the Tsinandali Festival 2026
Music Director Gianandrea Noseda opens the festival on 3 September with violinist Lisa Batiashvili, in Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
He returns on 6 September with Pinchas Zukerman for the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in Ravel's orchestration.
Rafael Payare conducts Mahler's Second Symphony on 9 September, with soprano Chen Reiss and mezzo Okka von der Damerau.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider closes the run on 13 September alongside pianist Davit Khrikuli, in Chopin's Second Piano Concerto with works by Strauss and Ravel.
In between sit chamber recitals from Sergei Babayan, Marc-André Hamelin, Ilya Gringolts, Sayaka Shoji and Kian Soltani, a Carmen staging by Dmitry Krymov with Anita Rachvelishvili in the title role, and the Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet.
Why the Estate Fills Up in September
Tsinandali sits about ninety minutes east of Tbilisi, in the middle of Georgia's main wine region.
The estate itself was the home of the poet Alexander Chavchavadze, and the concert halls and amphitheatre are set inside its gardens and vineyards.
Kakheti is also mid-harvest in early September, so the festival crowd overlaps with rtveli visitors and the wineries around Telavi and Sighnaghi are already busy.
The orchestra at the centre of it draws young players from nine countries across the Caucasus and Central Asia, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, after a four week residency at the estate.
The festival is presented by Silknet with TBC Concept as general partner, and has run every September since 2019.
The four orchestral evenings are the first thing to sell out, and the estate does not admit latecomers or children under ten.
Evening doors open at 18:30, daytime concerts at 11:30. Hotel packages run through the Radisson Collection Tsinandali on +995 322 402222.
The festival is also one of the clearest signals of how far Georgia's cultural economy now reaches beyond Tbilisi, which matters if you are weighing up moving to Georgia and want to know what a September in Kakheti actually looks like before you commit to a lease.
What To Do Now
Check remaining tickets on tkt.ge or the official festival site before the opening night.
Pay with a TBC Concept Mastercard for 15 percent off, or any foreign issued Mastercard for 10 percent.
Book accommodation in Telavi or Tsinandali now, not on the day.
Allow two hours from Tbilisi if you are driving during harvest traffic.
If the trip turns into a longer stay, read up on residence permit rules for 2026, company registration in Georgia and opening a local bank account.
The Tsinandali Festival 2026 closes on 13 September, and the estate goes quiet again until next autumn.
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