Justina Gringyté
2015 International Opera Awards Young Singer of the Year, Justina Gringyté has received the highest praise for her "knockout technique". The 2019/20 Season sees her return to Lithuanian National OPera and English National Opera (title role Carmen) and Korean National Opera (Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel). She also makes her role debut as Santuzza Cavalleria Rusticana (Scottish Opera).
Highlights of the 2018-19 season included her house debut at Korean National Opera (Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel), her house and role ddebut as Suzuki Madama Butterfly (Gran Teatro del Liceu) and her role debut as Tigrana Edgar (Scottish Opera). Other engagements included returns to Wels National Opera (Sara Roberto Devereux) and Lituanian National Opera (Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi) and concert performances the CBSO (Boulanger's Psalm 130 at the BBC Proms), Frankfurt Radio Symphony (cond. Oroszo Estrada) and a Wigmore Hall recital with ianist Iain Burnside as part of their Russian Series.
Engagements in the 2017-18 season included returns to Welsh National OPera (Preziosilla in David Pountney's new production of La Forza del Destino) and Lithuanian National Opera (title role Carmen and her role debut as Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi), as well as her role debut as Dalila Samson et Dalila (Vilnius City Opera). Other engagements included Beethoven's Symphony N.9 at the Royal Albert Hall (Royal Philarminoic Orchestra) and a series of recitals with Petras Geniušas.
Gringyté's previous highlights include tittle role Carmen (English National Opera; Scottish Opera; Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Sao Carlo, Lisbon; Lithuanian National Opera and Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre); Fenena Nabucco (Welsh National Opera); Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel (Vilnius City Opera); Maddalena Rigoletto (Royal OPera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; English National Opera and Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow) and Marguerite La damnation de Faust (Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow).
Equally ni demand on the concert platform, recent performances include Mahler Symphony N.3 (Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra cond. Gintaras Rinkevičus); Mahler Symphony N. 8 (Philarmonia Orchestra cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen); Beethoven Symphony N. 9 (London PHilharmonic Orchestra cond. Kazushi Ono); Verdi Requiem (Simón Bolívar Orchestra cond. Gustavo Dudamel); Dvořák's Stabat Mater (Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra); Raminta Šerkšnyte's Songs of Sunset and Dawn (Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Giedré Šlekyté); Respighi Il tramonto and Britten Phedra (Klaipéda Chamber Orchestra); a gala concert with the Lithuanian National Philarmonic Orchestra and the closing concert of XV International Tytuvenai Festival with Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet House Orchestra (cond. Robertas Šervenikas). She has given concert performances of Kaled Le roi de Lahore and Dulcinée Don Quichotte (Chelsea Opera Group cond. Renato Balsadonna); Meg Page Falstaff (CBSO cond. Ed Gardner) and Carmen in Moscow and St. Petersburg and Olga Eugene Onegin (cond. Mikhail Simonyan). Recent recitals incude a recital of Rachmaninov songs with Juilus Drake in Antwerp and a Wigmore Hall recital with Iain Burnside.
Gringyté studied at Lithuania's Academy of Music and Theatre, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London. She studies with Buddug Verona James and is a former Samling and Jette Parker Young Artist. Her debut recording The Complete Rachmaninov Songs (Delphian, with Iain Burnside) was shortlisted for the 2014 Gramophone Awards and her recording of Medtner songs, also with Iain Burnside, was released in 2018 to great acclaim, with gramophone praising the disc's "fresh new perspective".