Gediminas Gelgotas

Last updated

Gediminas Gelgotas
Birth nameGediminas Gelgotas
Born (1986-06-12) June 12, 1986 (age 37)
Vilnius, Lithuania
Genres Contemporary classical music, minimal music
Occupation(s) Composer, conductor
Instrument(s) Piano, trumpet
Years active2004–present
Labels Peermusic, Naïve Records, Deutsche Grammophon
Website www.gediminasgelgotas.com

Gediminas Gelgotas (born 12 June 1986 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian composer, conductor and self-performing artist.

Contents

Gelgotas' music is known to captivate younger and new audiences of classical music. The composer made his most recent international debuts with his symphonic scores at Berlin Konzerthaus (2012), Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2013), Leipzig Gewandhaus (2015), Zurich Tonhalle (2015), Kissinger Sommer Festival (2018), as well as other prestigious concert halls and festivals. His works have been presented by major broadcasters in Europe and Worldwide, including Classic FM, Mezzo TV, BBC World Service, BR Klassik, Radio France, WQXR and others.

Early life

He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania on 12 June 1986 and grew up in a family of musicians. His mother is a choir conductor at Vilnius University, his father a member of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. His siblings are also musicians. (Brother Giedrius Gelgotas – flutist, sister Justė Gelgotaitė – oboist).

At the age of seven, Gelgotas enrolled at the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art where he studied piano, trumpet and composition. He graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where he studied composition and orchestral conducting, as well as the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where he studied composition with Peter Michael Hamel.

Life and Works

Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean

Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean is a piece for symphony orchestra by Gediminas Gelgotas written in 2011 originally for a smaller string ensemble. The symphonic version was premiered at the Berlin Konzerthaus with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic (formerly Baltic Youth Philharmonic) conducted by Kristian Järvi at the Young Euro Classic Festival on 11 August 2012. The minimalist composition reflects his consistent way of personally dealing with intellectual worlds and creative processes. "The new composition by the Lithuanian composer Gediminas Gelgotas caused a sensation!" [1]

On 1 September 2013, the work was broadcast widely on German radio stations, and since September 2015 it is aired regularly on Mezzo TV in Europe and Asia. Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean is also released by the independent French music label Naïve. This particular opus soon started to migrate throughout European festivals and turned out to be a reference point for the international career of Gelgotas.

Symphony No.1 Extracultural

Extracultural is the first symphony by Gediminas Gelgotas written in 2014-2015. It is scored for a symphony orchestra and an ensemble (voice, piano, electronics and strings). The world premiere of Extracultural took place at the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, on 17 January 2015 and has culminated with standing ovations and great reviews. The first performance in Lithuania was during the opening gala of the XIXth International Vilnius Festival half a year later. Both of the premieres were conducted by Kristjan Järvi. They were performed by the MDR Radio Orchestra in Leipzig, where Järvi is the artistic director and chief conductor, and by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius. Gelgotas' ensemble NICO performed in both premieres with the composer himself on stage.

The piece consists of four main movements: Higher Energy, Sacred Unreligious Soul, Transitory, Sanctifaction and eight smaller episodes: Introduction, Contemporary Music, Modulation 1, Modulation 2, Pre–Sanctifaction, Bridge X, Cadenza. The duration of the piece is approximately 42 minutes.

Mountains. Waters. (Freedom)

Mountains. Water. (Freedom) is a piece for symphony orchestra by Gediminas Gelgotas written in 2015. It was commissioned by the Swiss Orpheum Foundation and premiered in September 2015 at the Zurich Tonhalle by Kristjan Järvi conducting Baltic Sea Philharmonic. From February 2017 Mountains. Waters. (Freedom) is broadcast regularly by Mezzo TV in Europe and Asia.

Violin Concerto No.1

Gelgotas‘ first Violin Concerto was written in 2017-2018 and commissioned by Swiss violinist David Nebel. The premiere took place at the Kissinger Sommer Festival, on 7 July 2018, played by David Nebel, Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. The work received high interest prior to and after the premiere, including broadcasts and interviews by BR Klassik, as well as publications including the Violin Channel and German press. German newspaper Main Post wrote: "The Lithuanian Gelgotas unfolds wide spaces in the large orchestra, densely woven from tight intervals. Staggered slight changes in the often blocky, fine-rhythmic, even static events achieve delicate, sometimes even dramatic reverb effects. <...> Striking colour and idyll <...> as if the composer had overheard nature <...>." [2]

Recognition and Acclaim

To date, Gelgotas‘ music has been presented at many prestigious classical music festivals and concerts halls across Europe including the Kissinger Sommer, Merano Music Festival, Beethovenfest, Schleswig-Holstein, Young Euro Classics, Usedom music festivals, as well as Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, Berlin Konzerthaus, Zurich Tonhalle, Helsinki Music Centre, Mariinski Theatre in St. Petersburg and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow amongst others prestigious venues.

Gelgotas’ works have been recently performed by conductors Kristjan Järvi and Martynas Stakionis, violinists Mari Samuelsen, Lidia Baich, Kristīne Balanas, David Nebel, cellist Vytautas Sondeckis, double-bassist Roman Patkoló, singer Asmik Grigorian and trumpeter Ole Edvard Antonsen.

Gelgotas was the composer in residence at Verbier Festival in 2014 where he was presented with Neva Foundation Prize.

Gelgotas' music has been presented by many major broadcasters in Europe and Worldwide, including Classic FM, Mezzo TV, BBC World Service, BR Klassik, Radio France and others.

Composed works

Related Research Articles

Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erkki-Sven Tüür</span> Estonian composer

Erkki-Sven Tüür is an Estonian composer.

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodion Shchedrin</span> Soviet and Russian composer and pianist

Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin is a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist, winner of USSR State Prize (1972), the Lenin Prize (1984), and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992), and is a former member of the Inter-regional Deputies Group (1989–1991). He is also a citizen of Lithuania and Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Geringas</span> Lithuanian cellist and conductor

David Geringas is a Lithuanian cellist and conductor who studied under Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1970 he won the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also plays the baryton, a rare instrument associated with music of Joseph Haydn.

Lera Auerbach is a Soviet-born Austrian-American classical composer, conductor and concert pianist.

Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.

Osvaldas Jonas Balakauskas is a Lithuanian composer of classical music and diplomat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta Read Thomas</span> American composer (born 1964)

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristjan Järvi</span> Estonian conductor and composer

Kristjan Järvi is an Estonian American conductor, composer and producer. Born in Tallinn, Estonia, he is the younger son of the conductor Neeme Järvi and brother of conductor Paavo Järvi and flutist Maarika Järvi.

Brett Dean is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.

Roberto Sierra is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.

Onutė Narbutaitė is a Lithuanian composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antti Siirala</span> Finnish pianist

Antti Aleksi Siirala is a Finnish pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabian Müller (composer)</span> Swiss composer

Fabian Müller is a Swiss composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svante Henryson</span> Swedish musician and composer

Svante Henryson is a composer, cellist, bass guitarist and double bassist, active within jazz, classical music, and hard rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Schnyder</span> Swiss classical pianist

Oliver Schnyder is a Swiss classical pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayal Adler</span> Israeli composer

Ayal Adler, is an Israeli composer. Active internationally, his works are continuously performed worldwide. Serves as Associate Professor in composition and theory at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Recipient of numerous awards, including: the Prime-Minister Award for Composition; Two Acum Prizes, and the first prize at the RMN International Competition in London. Serves as a Board member of the Israeli Composers' League.

Dalia Raudonikytė was a Lithuanian composer and pianist born in Vilnius, Lithuania. She was profiled in the Lithuanian Music Encyclopedia, Muzikos Enciklopedija, in 2007. Her compositions ranged from electronic to orchestral and she was known to use literary references in her lyrics, quoting authors such as Thomas Wolfe, Picabia, Virginia Woolf, and Stefan Zweig in her works. She died on 7 September 2018 after a protracted fight with cancer.

References

  1. Scheer, August-Wilhelm, ed. (1998). Neue Märkte, neue Medien, neue Methoden — Roadmap zur agilen Organisation. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-58996-6. ISBN   978-3-642-63817-6.
  2. "Elke Tober-Vogt: Als hätte der Komponist die Natur belauscht, Main Post, 9 July 2018". Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  1. Jump up ^ Neue Musikzeitung, August 2012.