Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

Since the beginning of the 2016/17 season, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has been Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), where she follows in the footsteps of conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. Under the direction of its music director, the CBSO has also given numerous performances on tour. Recent highlights, in addition to her performances with the CSBO, include a highly acclaimed performance of Britten's “War Requiem” at the Salzburg Festival and her return to opera with a new production of Janáček's “The Cunning Little Vixen”, staged by Barrie Kosky, at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in January 2022.

In spring 2019 Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla's debut CD was released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG). It delighted critics and listeners worldwide, was hailed as a significant contribution to the rediscovery of Mieczysław Weinberg's œuvre, and won both the Opus Klassik and the Grammophon Award in 2020. The recordings were made with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer, with whom Gražinytė-Tyla has maintained an intensive artistic exchange since 2013. In November 2019, she released a portrait album of the Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė with DG, followed by her latest release “The British Project” with works by Elgar, Britten, Walton and Vaughan Williams in July 2021.

Born into a family of musicians in Vilnius, Lithuania, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla first studied choral and orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. She then deepened her studies at the Conservatory in Bologna, at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig and at the Zurich University of the Arts. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla already attracted international attention in 2012 when she was awarded the coveted “Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award” at the Salzburg Festival. In 2011-2014 she served as Kapellmeister at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg and the Konzert Theater Bern before moving to the Salzburg Landestheater, where she was Music Director in 2015-2017. A Dudamel Fellowship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic was followed by invitations from numerous orchestras and opera houses worldwide. From 2014-2016 Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was Assistant Conductor and 2016-2017 Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As of November 2022