Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

»Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla … wields the baton with an authority and sensitivity that outshine her generation; her flair for architecture, texture, dramaturgy, and orchestration is impressive, and the Vienna Philharmonic plays for her with extraordinary discipline and dedication. Despite her still-young career, she has already established herself as a leading Weinberg interpreter, and her performance in this production is overwhelming. ★★★★★« The Financial Times on Weinberg's The Idiot at the Salzburg Festival 2024 Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is known for her precise gestures, dynamism, and bold programming, and is one of the most sought-after guest conductors of our time. While the Lithuanian conductor continues her long-standing close association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as an Associate Artist of the ensemble, she regularly works with the world's most renowned orchestras on a multifaceted repertoire, both in the concert hall and the opera house. Following her triumph at the Salzburg Festival 2024 with a new production of The Idiot by the long-underrated Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, she will be the first woman to conduct a subscription concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in the 2024–25 season. In 2019, the Lithuanian conductor signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first album for the label featured Weinberg's Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra and Symphony No. 21 "Kaddish." The recording with Gidon Kremer, the CBSO, and Kremerata Baltica was released on the composer's 100th birthday in May 2019. The album, acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, received the German Record Critics' Award, was named Gramophone's Recording of the Year, and was nominated for a GRAMMY®, earning Gražinytė-Tyla the Opus Klassik as Conductor of the Year in 2020. For her second album, she recorded – again with Kremerata Baltica – Midsummer Song and De profundis by her compatriot Raminta Šerkšnytė. It was released in November 2019, accompanied by the DVD Going for the Impossible, a documentary portrait of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. This was followed by The British Project, featuring recordings by the CBSO of works by British composers to mark the orchestra's 100th anniversary: Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem and the symphonic suite from Walton's Troilus and Cressida were released in October 2020 and March 2021, respectively. The complete album, which frames these two works with Elgar's Sospiri and Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, was then released in July 2021. In September 2022, Gražinytė-Tyla continued her Weinberg mission to bring broader attention to the unjustly overlooked composer. On Weinberg: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7 and Flute Concerto No. 1, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen performs Symphony No. 7 with soloist Kirill Gerstein (harpsichord), and the CBSO performs the Flute Concerto with soloist Marie-Christine Zupancic, as well as Symphony No. 3. Her current album presents Weinberg's first opera, The Passenger. Gražinytė-Tyla conducted the "harrowing Holocaust opera" (The Critic) in spring 2024 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, as a co-production with the Bregenzer Festspiele, Teatr Wielki, and English National Opera. Featuring the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real, as well as soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas, tenor Nikolai Schukoff, and baritone Gyula Orendt. The album was released digitally in January 2025, and the recording of the production can be seen on STAGE+. Her recent podium highlights include – in addition to the successes with Weinberg's operas in Madrid and Salzburg – her debuts with the New York Philharmonic in October 2023 ("the kind of debut that immediately makes you think about her future with the Philharmonic" – The New York Times) and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in November 2024. Her calendar now includes concerts with the Munich Philharmonic at Munich's Isarphilharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, and Budapest's Müpa (March/April 2025); her four concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and Yuja Wang at the Musikverein (May); appearances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Linz, and Vienna (May); and a concert featuring works by Brahms and Weinberg with the CBSO in Birmingham (June). Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was born into a family of musicians in Vilnius. Her father, a choirmaster, and her mother, a pianist, supported her instinctive desire to perform. Mirga's talent was nurtured and developed through music lessons in her childhood. She studied choral conducting and fine arts in her hometown at the renowned Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis National School of Art and conducted her first choral concert at the age of 16. A move to Austria and a place at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz opened up opportunities for Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla to broaden her musical horizons. She was excited by the prospect of conducting orchestras in the future and went on to study at the Conservatory in Bologna, the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig, and the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2009, she was accepted into the German Conductors' Forum, in 2011 she became 2nd Kapellmeister at the Theater Heidelberg, and in 2012 she achieved her international breakthrough when she won the coveted Salzburg Young Conductors Award and then made her debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. The following year, she became 1st Kapellmeister at Konzert Theater Bern, and from 2015 to 2017, she was Music Director at the Salzburger Landestheater. In the 2012/13 season, she was a Gustavo Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, then worked for two seasons as Assistant Conductor of the orchestra and in 2016/17 as Associate Conductor. The CBSO immediately recognized Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla's exceptional talent. After their first joint concert, she was invited back and offered the position of Music Director, following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, and Andris Nelsons. She began her tenure in September 2016. Innovative programming and intense, insightful performances became the hallmark of her work with the CBSO, with her repertoire ranging from Haydn and Mozart to Debussy, Mahler, and Shostakovich, as well as new works by composers such as Hans Abrahamsen, Jörg Widman, and Raminta Šerkšnytė. She remained connected to the CBSO in the 2022/23 season as Principal Guest Conductor and from autumn 2023 as Associate Artist. In 2019, the Royal Philharmonic Society honored her with the Conductor Award, with the jury's citation highlighting her dedicated work in Birmingham: "She brings her own vision while forging a respectful, mutually fruitful partnership with the musicians…; bravely and energetically plunges into a vast, unusual repertoire; and captivates the city beyond the concert hall." 3/2025