Eliso Virsaladze studied under Yakov Zak in the postgraduate program of the Moscow Conservatory from 1966 to 1968. She retained the brightest memories of this period, noting the charm Zak exerted on his students.
Virsaladze felt a special attitude toward her professor, perceiving an internal closeness to him as an artist and valuing the creative "compatibility" between teacher and student. She later cited her studies with Zak as an illustration of creative kinship when discussing her own teaching philosophy.
