Gintaras Rinkevičius

The conductor Gintaras Rinkevicius was born in 1960. He studied In Vilnius M. K. Ciurlionis Gymnasium of Arts and graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1983. From 1983 to I986 he undertook the post-graduate studies in Moscow Conservatoire in the class of professor Yuri Simonov. G. Rinkevicius had a successful participation in three conductors' competitions. In 1983 he became a winner of the Fifth All-Union Conductor's Competition of the former USSR in Moscow. In 1985 he a became a winner of the International Competition in West Berlin of Herbert von Karajan Fund. And in 1986 he became a laureate of Budapest Competition In Memoriam Janos Ferenscik. Here he was also awarded a special prize for the best interpretation of the fragment of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. Later on maestro Rinkevicius staged Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Budapest National Theatre. In the same theatre he also has conducted Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. In Lithuanian seaport Klaipeda he staged an opera Mežvydas by Lithuanian composer A. Žigaityte. It was this opera that Klaipeda's Musical theatre started its creative activities with. In June of 1992 Gintaras Rinkevicius staged and conducted Verdi’s Nabucco in Lithuanian Opera Theatre in Vilnius. This opera was also shown in Verdi Roncole Festival in Italy (1992) in the First International Theatre Festival LIFE in Vilnius and in Savonlinn Music Festival in Finland. In 1994 Rinkevicius staged A. Dvorak's Requiem in Lithuanian Opera Theatre. The latest Rinkevicius’s work in opera field is a series of staged performances of Der fliegender Holländer by Richard Wagner in three Lithuanian music theatres in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipeda. This project was realized with Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Latvian State Academic Choir Latvija, guest soloists and dancers. His latest opera performance was the concert version of G. Puccini's Tosca with Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, choir Ažuoliukas, soloists Irena Milkevičiute, Gianfranco Cecchele, Vladimiras Prudnikovas and Arunas Malikenas. Two successful and highly impressive concert performances were given in September 1996 in Vilnius and Kaunas, the two major Lithuanian cities. Gintaras Rinkevicius gives a lot of concerts every year. He has toured for several times France, The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal. He gave concerts in Major concert halls of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris. He has also toured Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria, Greece, etc. He gives special concerts on the major stages of neighboring Latvia. To this time maestro Gintaras Rinkevicius has given concerts with Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, The Big USSR Symphony Orchestra, the Big Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Weimarer Staatskapelle, Tampere Symphony Orchestra, etc. He had performances with such soloists as N. Petrov, S. Stadler, L. Isakadze, P. Donohoe, N. Gutman,. O. Kagan, N. Demidenko, etc. Since 1988 Gintaras Rinkevicius has been the chief conductor and artistic director of Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. He constantly gives concerts with this ensemble. It was with this orchestra, that he gave concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, gave a charitable concert in Salzburg. In 1991 and 1995 Rinkevicius with this orchestra made two big tours in Italy. Maestro Gintaras Rinkevicius and Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra participated in various international music festivals, such as Antibes, Kortrijk, Estoril, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Europamusicale in Munich, Wiltz Festival in Luxembourg, Disabtes Musicals in Santes Creus, Pontivy etc. In January 1995 maestro Rinkevicius together with this orchestra staged and gave nine successful performances of R. Wagner’s opera Der fliegende Holländer in three major Lithuanian cities - Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda. He also conducted this orchestra in all its major tours. In 1994 for this concert activities with this orchestra Gintaras Rinkevicius received National Award of the Republic of Lithuania. Gintaras Rinkevicius was the Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Opera in Riga (1996-2003).