Virsaladze first learnt the piano from her grandmother Anastasia Virsaladze, a well-known teacher and pupil of Annette Essipov (1851–1914), beginning at the comparatively late age of eight at the Tiflis School for Gifted Children and then continuing her studies with her grandmother at the Tiflis Conservatory. She had a natural technique, rarely needing to study technical exercises, and from the age of eleven began work on the études of Chopin. Virsaladze finished her studies with Heinrich Neuhaus and Yakov Zak at the Moscow Conservatory and made her public debut in Tiflis at the age of sixteen; the following year she won a silver medal at the World Youth Festival in Vienna. After receiving third prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition w...