Guest ArtistsMirga Gražinytė-Tyla, conductor

“Meeting a Force: Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla makes a great first impression, and before long she will simply be known as MIRGA” wrote the Los Angeles Times critic after her thrilling Hollywood Bowl debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in August 2014. Recently appointed Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater with the start of the 2015-16 season and Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the next two consecutive seasons, Ms. Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified orchestras and audiences alike. Highlights of the 2014-15 season included new productions of The Magic Flute and Tahrir (a world premiere) as Music Director designate in Salzburg as well as subscription debuts with the Seattle Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

A Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2012-13, Ms. Gražinytė-Tyla is the 2012 winner of the prestigious Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. Subsequently she made her debut with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele. Last season, she collaborated with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica in an extensive tour, and made her debut with the Wiener Kammerorchester in Vienna. In 2013-14, as First Kapellmeister of the Opera House in Bern, she conducted new productions of Zero, La traviata and The Cunning Little Vixen. Additionally, she led several productions at the Theater Heidelberg such as Aïda and Carmen as well as new productions of Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Las Cartas de Frida by the renowned Mexican composer Marcela Rodriguez.

Highlights of Ms. Gražinytė-Tyla’s career include concerts with the Danish Radio Orchestra Copenhagen, the MDR Orchestra Leipzig, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, as well as a collaboration with the Camerata Salzburg.

Praised as a dynamic, profound and extremely talented young conductor, Ms. Gražinytė-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum – Deutscher Dirigentenforum – in April 2009, and has since benefitted from their conducting program and support. She was one of the revelations of the 2009 Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar in Bonn, Germany, on “The Art of Conducting Beethoven.”

A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory in Zurich, she studied at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in choral and orchestral conducting from the University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. She has participated in numerous master classes and conducting workshops and worked with many established conductors and professors such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Herbert Blomstedt, Colin Metters and Kurt Masur.