The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra invites you to welcome the spring with two very talented personalities who are making Lithuania's name known in the world - pianist Onute Gražinytė and conductor Giedre Šlekyte.

 

Born into a family of musicians, Onutė Gražinytė began her musical studies at the age of five. In 2015 she went to study at the Hannover Academy of Music and from 2021 she continued her studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. O. Gražinytė performs extensively in Lithuania and abroad. She has already performed with the Salzburg Mozarteum, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Lyon, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and other renowned orchestras. 2020 O. Gražinytė collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the record label Accentus Music (Leipzig) to record Arvo Pärt's music album Lamentate. The album received excellent reviews from international critics, with top ratings from the international classical music magazines BBC Music Magazine (Great Britain), Pizzicato (Germany), Diapason d'or and Diapason d'or Arte (France). O. "She is a pianist who, despite her young age, has already reached a remarkable maturity. I very much appreciate her musical sensitivity in performing my works." (Accentus, 2020). This spring, at the LVSO Concert Hall with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, O. Gražinytė will perform Robert Schumann's (1810-1856) Piano Concerto in A minor - one of the most famous piano works of the Romantic era in the world. The concert will also feature Hector Berlioz's (1803-1869) "Love Scene" from the choral symphony "Romeo and Juliet", a work by the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė (b.

 

The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė, conductor in residence in Austria. G. Šlekytė studied conducting at the Graz University of the Arts in Austria, the Leipzig School of Music in Germany and the Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland. In the 2024-2025 season, she will make her conducting debut at the Vienna State Opera, London's Royal Opera House, and will conduct opera productions at the Vienna Musical Theatre, the Berlin State Opera, the Royal Danish Opera and elsewhere. In November 2023, replacing the ill conductor Daniel Barenboim, Šlekytė performed Brahms' highly acclaimed symphony cycle with the Staatskapelle Orchestra in Toronto. Critics have praised the conductor for the "freshness, precision and dynamism of her interpretations". Šlekytė is an active ambassador of Lithuanian music. Together with conductor Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, she recorded an album of Šerkšnytė's music, which was released by the prestigious international record label Deutsche Grammophon.