PRESS RELEASE 4 February 2016
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra appoints Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as its Music Director
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is delighted to announce that Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has been appointed as its 12th Music Director, with effect from September 2016 for an initial three-year period.
Gražinytė-Tyla made her debut with the CBSO in July 2015 and impressed the Orchestra so much that she returned last month to conduct a specially arranged concert featuring works by Debussy, Schumann and Sibelius. Following an extensive search process led by a committee made up of CBSO musicians, board members and management, and with strong support from Orchestra and audience alike, a unanimous decision was made by the board of trustees to invite Gražinytė-Tyla to be the CBSO’s next Music Director. She succeeds Andris Nelsons, who held the position from 2008-2015.
The CBSO is known for performing the widest range of orchestral and choral music, and Gražinytė- Tyla will continue this tradition in her role as Music Director. Her artistic plans with the CBSO will range widely from Mozart and Haydn to 20th century classics and works by living composers. Coming from the strong choral traditions of the Baltic states (her father is a choir conductor in Lithuania), and following her role in Salzburg, she will also lead opera projects in Birmingham and will work closely with Simon Halsey CBE, CBSO Chorus Director, on projects with the CBSO’s internationally renowned choruses. Full details of the CBSO’s 2016-17 concert season in Symphony Hall, Birmingham will be announced in April 2016.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla said: ‘Every single musician of the CBSO is an artist with great individuality and sense of responsibility. They are driven to be one of the world’s leading orchestras and their shared spirit for team work helps them to achieve this. I felt so at ease working with the Orchestra at the CBSO Centre and at Symphony Hall and I can't wait to get started and to call these my homes too. I am also very excited about working with the CBSO family including its brilliant choirs led by Simon Halsey, and getting involved with its extensive learning and participation programme both locally and further afield. I believe we will be a great team and really look forward to making music together.’
CBSO Chief Executive Stephen Maddock commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted to be appointing Mirga as the CBSO’s next Music Director. There was an instant chemistry between Mirga and our musicians, and the excitement in Symphony Hall at her concerts both on stage and in the audience was palpable. The CBSO is world-famous for its track record in finding brilliant young conducting talent: Sir Simon Rattle, appointed at just 25 years old, held the post for 18 years before moving to the Berlin Philharmonic. He passed the baton to the superbly talented Sakari Oramo (appointed at 30), who is now with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Andris Nelsons (appointed at 28) had seven wonderful years here and has gone on to lead the Boston Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. Mirga is 29 and is thrilling audiences wherever she goes: we can’t wait to start making music with her.’
Gražinytė-Tyla has been Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater since 2015. She is currently the Assistant Conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she was a Dudamel Fellow in 2012-13, and she takes up a new post of Associate Conductor from July 2016. She won the prestigious Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award in 2012.
Gustavo Dudamel, Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said: ‘I am personally delighted that Mirga has made such a strong connection with the musicians in Birmingham. She is an amazing artist, and we’ve been lucky to have her in Los Angeles. I know that she and this Orchestra are going to do great things together.’
PRESS RELEASE 4 February 2016
Andris Nelsons, former Music Director of the CBSO, commented: ‘Sending my very warmest congratulations to Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla on her appointment with the tremendous City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. My time with the Orchestra will always be very special to me, and I am sure Mirga will also be so inspired by the wonderful musical family of the CBSO. Together, with these gifted musicians, an exciting future lies ahead for Birmingham and I wish them all the very best!’
Zoë Beyers, CBSO Associate Leader said: ‘This is the start of an incredibly exciting time for the Orchestra - to work with someone as talented, vibrant and energetic as Mirga is a dream come true. She is a completely committed and serious musician, but at the same time she manages to convey her enthusiasm and joy in the music to us all on the stage and in the audience. Spirit, dynamism and sincerity - Mirga has all of these qualities in abundance.’
Bridget Blow, Chair of the CBSO, said: ‘The CBSO has, for many decades, brought the best music, artists and musicians to Birmingham while also acting as a proud ambassador for the city through extensive touring. In Mirga Gražinytė- Tyla we have found a new Music Director who will continue to deliver the highest quality music- making at home in Birmingham and the UK as well as internationally. I am delighted to welcome her to the CBSO family.’
Notes to Editors:
About Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Combining the dynamism of youth and a profundity beyond her years, conductor Mirga Gražinytė- Tyla is a creative and technical force. At the age of 29, she has already enjoyed meaningful and lasting relationships with top orchestras all over the world. Notably, Gražinytė-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016. She made her debut with the orchestra in July 2015 and returned in January 2016. In becoming the Music Director, Gražinytė-Tyla follows in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons.
Gražinytė-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2012-13 season, she became Assistant Conductor with the Orchestra in 2014, and was promoted to Associate Conductor for the 2016-17 season. Winner of the 2012 prestigious Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele. Gražinytė-Tyla is serving as the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017.
Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor in North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Seattle and San Diego symphonies; in Europe, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony 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, Gražinytė-Tyla has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on extensive tours, most recently at the Vienna Festival. She has led numerous operas in Heidelberg and Bern, where she served as Kapellmeister, as well as in Salzburg and at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
Gražinytė-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009, and was one of the revelations of the 2009 Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar in Bonn, Germany on “The Art of Conducting Beethoven.” 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
PRESS RELEASE 4 February 2016
University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. She has participated in numerous master classes and conducting workshops and worked with many established conductors and professors such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Herbert Blomstedt, Colin Metters, and Kurt Masur.
About the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras, and the flagship of musical life in Birmingham and the Midlands.
Based at Birmingham’s spectacular Symphony Hall, the orchestra and its ensembles give over 150 concerts each year in the UK and worldwide, playing a wide range of music including everything from Wagner operas to world premieres, film music and family concerts. With a far-reaching education and community programme, six choruses and a Youth Orchestra, it is involved with every aspect of music-making in the Midlands. But at its heart is a team of 90 superb professional musicians, and a 95-year tradition of making the world’s greatest music.
The orchestra was founded by future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1920, and Elgar conducted its inaugural concert. But it was when it discovered the young British conductor Simon Rattle in 1980 that the CBSO became internationally famous, and showed how the arts can help give a new sense of direction to a whole city. Rattle’s successors Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons cemented that global reputation, and continued to build on the CBSO’s distinguished tradition as one of the UK’s leading musical ambassadors.
Under the artistic leadership of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla the CBSO will continue to do what it does best – playing great music for people in Birmingham and beyond. As it approaches its centenary in 2020, the CBSO remains one of the most vibrant cultural organisations in the UK.
Previous CBSO Chief Conductors and Music Directors Appleby Matthews (1920 – 1924), Sir Adrian Boult (1924 – 1930) (1959-1960), Leslie Heward (1930 – 1943), George Weldon (1944 – 1951), Rudolf Schwarz (1951 – 1957), Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1957 – 1959), Hugo Rignold (1960-1969), Louis Frémaux (1969 – 1978), Sir Simon Rattle (1980 – 1998), Sakari Oramo (1998 – 2008), Andris Nelsons (2008 – 2015)
For further press information please contact Rebecca Driver Media Relations web: www.rdmr.co.uk email: [email protected] | [email protected] tel: 020 7247 1894