Giedrė Šlekytė

Biography

Giedrė Šlekytė makes her National Theatre debut in the 2022/23 season, conducting a production of Alexander Zemlinsky’s Kleider machen Leute at the State Opera. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, she began her musical education at the National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurli­onis School of Art in Vilnius. She went on to study conducting at the Kunstuniversi­tät in Graz, the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig and the Hoch­schule der Künste in Zurich. She has conducted numerous orchestras, including the Münchner Philharmoniker, Wiener Sympho­niker, Royal Stockholm Phil­harmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Staatskapelle Dresden, Konzert­haus­orchester Berlin, Orchestre Phil­har­monique de Radio France, Lithu­anian Natio­nal Symphony Orches­tra, Mozarteum­orchester Salzburg and the Bruckner Orchester Linz, with which she has been closely associated as a principal guest conductor since the 2021/22 season.

After her engagement as first Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (2016–18), she has conducted new productions at the Oper Frankfurt (Dialogues des Carmélites), Komische Oper Berlin (Káťa Kabanová), Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (L'infedeltà delusa), Oper Leipzig (L’elisir d’amore, Schneewittchen), Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Rusalka), Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre (Die Zauberflöte) and the Theater an der Wien (The Cunning Little Vixen). She has also conducted Die Zauberflöte at the Staatsoper Berlin, La bohème at the Semperoper Dresden, Rigoletto at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the autumn of 2019, Deutsche Grammo­phon released the portrait CD Raminta Šerkšnytė, featuring Šerkšnytė’s cantata-oratorio Songs of Sunset and Dawn, with Šlekytė conduc­ting the Lithuanian National Sympho­ny Orches­tra, with whom she has also made the album Saudade, containing music by the Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė and issued by Ondine in 2021. Giedrė Šlekytė is a prize-winner of the Interna­tional Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. She was nominated for the Salzburger Festspiele’s Young Conduc­tors Award (2015) and for the Inter­natio­nal Opera Awards’ Newcomer of the Year (2018).

Photo Theresa Pewal