Loreta Narvilaitė (b. 1965 in Klaipėda) is a composer, teacher, music manager. 1980-1984 studied at the music theory department of Klaipėda Stasios Šimkaus Conservatory, attended composition lessons with Jonas Paulikas. in 1989 graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatory (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater) prof. Julius Juzeliūnas composition class, 1996. assistantship-internship there. After his studies, he returned to Klaipėda, where he started teaching and is still teaching at Klaipėda Stasios Šimkaus Conservatory.
1994-1999 was the initiator and artistic director of the new music festival "Kopa" held in Klaipėda. 2002, 2003 and 2004 resided at the International Center for Composers in Visby (Gotland, Sweden). Since the establishment of the Klaipėda Concert Hall in 2005 worked as deputy for cultural activities, since 2023 - artistic director of the repertoire. She is the artistic director of the "Permainų muzika", "Salve Musica", "Klaipėda music spring" and Klaipėda carillon festival organized by the institution.
During her studies, the rational principles of the composer's work crystallized - a tendency towards a strict, calculated order, based on mathematical sequences of numbers or graphic lines, while not limiting the space of fantasy and artistic intuition. This is characterized by "Praeinanti nata" for fifteen strings (1990), "Con variationi" for brass quintet (1990), "Nona" for organ (1991). Later, the composer's creative style began to change. "Shauksmas-Świesa" for two trumpets and two pianos (2000), "Your eyelashes touch the lips of my memories" for solo oboe (2002), "When I'm not told to cross the river" for violin, cello and piano (2003), "Gardens of Sorrow" for 3 percussionists (2005) marks a creative stage, which the author describes as "music of moods".
The titles of many of her works also often reveal the composer's poetic or literary inspirations. "Ryto rasa krito" (1996) for the instrumental ensemble emits a nostalgic light, "longing for inaccessibility" (in the author's words), as if through a veil. The piece "Pragydos vejas" for oboe and symphony orchestra (2003) is accompanied by a poem by Sigitas Geda chosen as an epigraph, in which the dimension of eternity opens up in the "cubist" space of an apartment building through an unexpected transformation of meanings. The city and the city man who has stopped for a moment to think have become the ideological leitmotif of the composer's work. This is evidenced by works such as "Open City" for symphony orchestra (1996), "Miestos Labirintas" for soprano, reader and symphony orchestra (2013) with texts by Jurga Ivanauskaitė and Algimantas Mackaus, "The City as work of art" for reader, vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra (2018).
Another constant source that feeds the composer's imagination and creativity is the sea, coastal nature. References to this inexhaustible source of inspiration abound both in the titles of her works and in the tracks, like wind-blown, free-flowing musical textures: "A wave accompanies the flight of a bird" for solo violin (2012), "See the sea in the distance" for violin, cello and piano (2015), "The sea falls to the shore" for string orchestra (2016), "The sound of the waves coincides with the sky" for harp solo and symphony orchestra (2018).
The composer, who mainly creates instrumental music for various solo instruments, chamber ensembles and orchestra, had the opportunity to try her hand at the opera genre for the first time a few years ago: she received an invitation from the artistic director of the chamber ensemble "Musica humana" Robert Beinari to create the second part ("Dunes") for the opera-triptych. Neringa" (the author of the libretto of the opera Gintarė Dikšienė, the music for the other two parts was composed by Vaida Striaupaitė-Beinarienė and Algirdas Martinaitis). The premiere of the opera took place in 2021. in the summer at the International Chamber Music Festival "Curonian Spit" and became one of the main highlights of the "Neringa - Lithuanian Culture Capital 2021" program.
The premieres of L. Narvilaitė's works took place and later her work was heard at many contemporary and classical music festivals held in Lithuania, among them "Svedijos garsai", "Gaida", "Jauna muzika", at the Vilnius festival, "Iš arti", "Marių Klavyrai", " Klaipėda Music Spring", "Kopa", "Music Returns", "Change Music", Klaipėda Carillon Festival, , Youth Chamber Music Days in Druskininkai, Thomas Mann Festival in Nida, Kinto Music Festival, International Percussion and Percussion Festival in Ukmerge and elsewhere. For many years, the composer has successfully cooperated with the most famous Lithuanian and foreign music artists, who spread her work far beyond the borders of the country. Her music was also performed at the ppIANISSIMO (Sofia, Bulgaria), Arsenals (Riga, Latvia), Youth Music Forum, Season Premieres (Kyiv, Ukraine), Velvet Curtain (Lviv, Ukraine), Festival Alexandre Paley et ses amis" (Moulin d'Andé, France), Gdańsk Carillon Festival (Poland), concerts in various European countries, USA, Argentina.
More than one artist has included L. Narvilaitė's works in their audio recordings. Among them are the oboists Juozas Rimas (Lituvian auletika, LMIC, 2002) and Robertas Beinaris (Lituvian Music Mosaic, 2010), the trio "Kaskados" (Music for Piano Trio, LMIC 2009) and Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Gleb Pyšniak and Gintaras Januševičius Trio ("Window to Lithuania", 2015), "Vilnius Arsenalas" ensemble ("Space and Time Reflections", 2007), percussionist Saulius Astrauskas ("Ringing Bridges", 2015), pianists Birutė Vainiūnaitė ("Lithuanian Piano Music" , 2007) and Daumantas Kirilauskas ("Independent Action", 2018), choirs "Vilnius" (2015) and "Aukuras" (2005). Several of her works are included in music anthologies of Lithuanian and Klaipėda composers, and in 2010 the only original audio and video publication of the composer's music appeared so far - the double album "Shauksmas - light" (CD / DVD, publisher: Scenes and Aesthetics School).
