Lithuanian pianist Monika Dars has performed around Europe, USA, South America and Canada as a soloist and chamber musician.
Monika is a laureate of national and international piano competitions. Among the recent awards are Joseph Darche Piano Prize in Brussels, Belgium, 2nd prize at Luigi Nono Chamber Music Competition in Rivoli, Italy with cellist Natania Hoffman. In 2018, in the context of BeNeLux 60th Anniversary, Monika performed for the Royal families at the Bozar Henry Le Boeuf Hall in Brussels. In 2019, together with Nicolas Dupont, Clement Holvoet and Kacper Nowak – Urban Piano Quartet- won a Supernova 2019 competition in Belgium. This led to a successful continuation- more than 30 concerts tour and a debut CD featuring piano quartets by J.Brahms and P.Vasks. Later that year, UPQ won Nordic Strings chamber music competition (Denmark) and got invited for a concert tour in China. Later in 2019 and 2020, Monika performed more than 150 solo and chamber music recitals in USA and Europe in a program in partnership with Lincoln Center of Performing Arts in NYC. In 2021 Monika gladly received Golden Parnassus award from Podkarpacka Fundacja Rozwoju Kultury in Poland. In 2023 she had a great pleasure to perform S.Rachmaninov`s 2nd Piano Concerto with Melomania Orchestra and G.Hollander and A.Piazzolla`s “The Seasons” with Stauffer Ensemble and P.Ziegler in the context of Stauffer Summer Music Festival. In September 2023, together with Urban Piano Quartet Monika is taking part in the final round of Schoenfeld String Competition in Harbin, China. Since September 2023 Monika started teaching chamber music at the Royal Conservatory in Mons ARTS2.
Over the years, Monika had great pleasure to perform W.A.Mozart, L.van Beethoven, F.Chopin, C.Saint-Saens and S.Rachmaninov piano concertos with National Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Lviv Chamber, Melomania Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, Kaunas Symphony, National M.K. Ciurlionis School of Arts Symphony and Chamber orchestras under direction of Igor Pylatiuk,Bogdan Oledzki, Gabriel Hollander, Modestas Pitrenas, Martynas Staskus.
Highly passionate about chamber music, Monika is often involved in cello-piano duo and piano quartet ensembles. In the context of various festivals, she has collaborated with Frans Helmerson, Justus Grimm, Philippe Grafin, Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider, Tony Nys, David Guerrier among other musicians. Monika appeared at prestigious European festivals such as Encuentro de Santander (Spain); Harmos Festival (Portugal); Academie Internationale d`Ete de Nice (France);Thy Chamber Music Festival (Denmark); Rencontres Musicales Internationales d’Enghien, Midis-Minimes, Resonances (Belgium); Apeldoorn Festival, Akoesticum Talent Program (The Netherlands); Aurora Festival (Sweden); Bieszczady Bez Granic Piano Forum (Poland); National Students` Academy (M.Rostropovich foundation), Christopher`s Summer Festival (Lithuania).
The recordings of Monika have been broadcasted by National Radio and Television (Lithuania), TVP kultura (Poland), Musiq3, Klara, Notele (Belgium), BRAVA (The Netherlands) channels.
Monika started to play piano at the age of 8 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Since then studied at the National M.K.Ciurlionis School of Arts as well as Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater in the class of Veronika Vitaite, Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium) under Daniel Blumenthal and Hans Ryckelynck, Hannover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien (Germany) under Ewa Kupiec and Hochschule der Künste Bern (Switzerland). Important artistic inspirations Monika received at the masterclasses with E.Bozhanov, A.R.El Bacha, M.Beroff, D.Pascal, M.Gulyas, V.Samoshko, R.Plano, M.B.Pommier, M.Baudet, M.Raekallio, A.Jasinski among others.
