Grand Prix winners at the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Competition in Paris (2023)
The duo of Tomas Kildišius and Gustas Raudonis has been active since 2022. The duo's repertoire is based on German Lied and French mélodie, but they are also interested in the works of English and Lithuanian composers. Thomas and Gust are winners of international competitions: in 2022 they won 3rd prize at the International Student Duo Competition in Groningen, the Netherlands, and in 2023 they won the main prize at the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Competition for voice and piano in Paris. The duo's creative activity has been strongly influenced by intensive work with Lied professionals Hans Eijsackers and Konrad Jarnot. They have also studied with David Abramovitz, Christoph Prégardien, Juliane Banse and Waltraud Österreicher.
Baritone Tomas Kildišius has devoted a large part of his artistic life to the Lied genre. He has been praised by the press for his interpretative expression (pizzicato.lu) and impeccable pronunciation (NGZ Neuss).
The artist has been surrounded by music since his school days. In his hometown of Molėtai, he sang in six different choirs and ensembles (despite the size of the town, which has about 7000 inhabitants, there are many children's and adults' musical groups). He first appeared on stage as a soloist at the age of 13. After winning the national competition for young singers, as well as Dainų dainelė, he decided to study classical singing, and in 2014 he began his studies, first at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, then at the Robert Schumann Higher School of Music and Theatre in Düsseldorf, where he was able to further develop his talents and skills.
Tomas Kildišius regularly performs in Germany, the Netherlands and France. He has sung at the Krefeld-Monchengladbach Opera House and at the Deutsche Oper Rhein. His oratorio repertoire includes works such as Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah, Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion and George Frideric Handel's Messiah. He has been entrusted with the world premieres of works by composers Robert Holl, Wolfgang Abendroth and Dmitri Shchukin. In 2023, Tomas Kildišius released his debut album with the Armenian pianist Ani Ter-Martirosyan - Johannes Brahms' song cycle "The Beautiful Magellan".
Pianist Gustas Raudonius graduated from the National Nicholas Constantine Čiurlionis School of Arts in 2015 with a degree in piano with a faculty of composition. In 2019 he graduated from the Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Music with a Bachelor's degree in piano in the class of associate professor Donalds Raitis. From 2020 he is studying piano and Lied Art at the Robert Schumann Graduate School in Düsseldorf, in the classes of Prof. Lisa Eisner-Smirnova and Prof. Hans Eijsackers. During his studies he participated in various international Lied masterclasses (Anne Le Bozec, Juliane Banse, Ian Burnside, Robert Holl, Elly Ameling). He maintains regular professional contacts with pianists David Abramovitz (France), Reinild Mees (Netherlands), Eric Schneider (Germany).
As a soloist, he performed in 2016 at the European Music Competitions for Young People (EMCY) in Germany and Luxembourg, and in 2017 at the European Music Competition for Young People (EMCY) in Luxembourg. - In 2017, he participated in the series of concerts "All etudes by Rachmaninov" in Poland and Lithuania, and in 2018 - in the project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of C. Debussy "On the Beach with Debussy" at the Kaunas Philharmonic Hall and the Organum Concert Hall in Vilnius. In 2017 he became interested in the genre of art song, in the same year he presented a programme of songs by French composers and a CD with tenor Ilya Aksionov in the project "Young Talents of Vaidila Classics", and in 2021 he organised a conceptual lied recital "To Far Away Lover" in Vilnius. With mezzo-soprano Saule Šeryte, he presented the Lied programmes Eduard Mörike's Poetry in Song and Reynaldo Hahn's Songs in Lithuania. In 2022, with soprano Julia Wirth and mezzo-soprano Valerie Eickhoff, she recorded song cycles by Robert Schumann and Olivier Messiaen for the German national broadcaster SWR. The French daily La Croix described his playing as "magnificent and colourful".
