Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. Her Music Directorship was extended through the 2020-21 season. Winner of the 2012 Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele.

Recent highlights include numerous European tours with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Filharmonica della Scalla, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Gražinyte-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. In Europe, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Chamber Orchestras 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, she has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Heidelberg, Salzburg, Komische Oper Berlin, and Bern, where she served as Kapellmeister. In North America, she has worked with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Seattle and San Diego and has led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2018.
With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinyte-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow in the 2012-13 season, Assistant Conductor (2014-16), and Associate Conductor (2016-17). She was the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon Artist since 2018, her first album on the yellow label features Symphony No.2 for string orchestra and Symphony No.21 "Kaddish", by the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg's, recorded with Gidon Kremer, the CBSO and Kremerata Baltica, and released in May 2019 to coincide with celebrations of the composer's centenary. Mirga was nominated for a Grammy and the album received numerous accolades from the press and was awarded with a Grammophone Award at the Grammophone Classic Music Awards as well as as an Opus Klassik Award in 2020. On her next release, Gražinytė-Tyla went on to present music by her compatriot Raminta Šerkšnytė with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Vilnius Municipal Choir and Kremerata Baltica followed by an album of works by British composers with the CBSO as the orchestra celebrates its centenary in 2020.
Gražinyte-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009. 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. Mirga has participated in numerous masterclasses and conducting workshops, and has worked with many established conductors and professors, such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Herbert Blomstedt, and Colin Metters.

Source: Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla: Biography (mirgagrazinytetyla.com)