Lithuanian conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla,associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director-designate of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, makes her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra on the ensemble’s season opener, Monday, September 26, 2016, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall.
The program opens with Lithuanian composer Raminta Serksnyte’s Fires (2010), followed by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 (piano soloist to be announced) and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
About the Program
Raminta Serksnyte’s Fires was commissioned by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Mariss Jansons and premiered at the Herkulessaal (Hercules Hall) in Munich on May 17 and 18, 2012. Ms. Serksnyte drew inspiration for her work from several sources and because the piece premiered on a program with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, she picked some of its motifs, which became the basis for the harmonic development in her composition. Fires is also a sequel in a series of orchestral works, whose titles refer to the natural phenomena and elemental forces (other compositions include Iceberg Symphony, Mountains in the Mist, and Glow).
Beethoven introduced his Piano Concerto No. 3 on April 5, 1803 at the Theater an der Wien on a program that also included the Second Symphony and the oratorio, Christus am Ölberge, Op. 85 (Christ on the Mount of Olives), as well as a reprise performance of the First Symphony, which was heard a year earlier.
Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique had its premiere at the Paris Conservatory on December 5, 1830 by an orchestra hired by the composer from members of the Conservatory’s orchestra and the orchestra of the Théâtre des Nouveautés, conducted by François Habeneck.
About Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla
Combining the dynamism of youth and a profundity beyond her years, conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla is a creative and technical force. At the age of 29, she has already enjoyed meaningful and lasting relationships with top orchestras all over the world. Notably, Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla was named music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016. She made her debut with the orchestra in July 2015 and returned in January 2016. In becoming the music director, Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla follows in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, and Andris Nelsons.
Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2012-13 season; she became assistant conductor with the orchestra in 2014 and was promoted to associate conductor for the 2016-17 season. Winner of the 2012 prestigious Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele. Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla is serving as the music director of the Salzburg Landestheater through 2017.
Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor in North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Seattle and San Diego symphonies; in Europe, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Vienna, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Camerata Salzburg, and the Orchestra of the Komische Oper in Berlin. At the Kremerata Baltica, Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on extensive tours, most recently at the Vienna Festival. She has led numerous operas in Heidelberg and Bern, where she served as Kapellmeister, as well as in Salzburg and at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
Ms. Grazinyte-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009, and 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, she 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.
