Born in 1960, Gintaras Rinkevičius is one of the most famous conductors in Lithuania today, a National Prize laureate, founder of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, and its artistic director and chief conductor. He graduated from the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts, St Petersburg Conservatoire (1983) and the Moscow State Pyotr Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (1986). He is a winner of the Fifth Confederate Conductors’ Competition in Moscow (1983), a laureate of the international competition In Memoriam Jįnos Ferencsik in Budapest (1986, a special prize for an interpretation of a piece from The Magic Flute by Mozart). Today he works at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (he was appointed professor in 2004). In 1997 he was awarded the Fourth Class Order of Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, and was presented with the Grand Latvian Music Award for merit to Latvian musical culture in 1997 and 2000. He is a Chevalier of the Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Norway (Den KGL Norske Fortjenstorden), and a holder of the Portuguese Ordem do Merito Comendador and the Latvian Order of Three Stars.
In 1999 he was voted Latvian Conductor of the Year, and today is invited to direct in the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow and to stage operas in the Latvian National Opera and Scottish Opera. A winner of the Herbert von Karajan Fund International Competition for Conductors in West Berlin (1985), Maestro Rinkevičius has directed the foremost orchestras of the world, including the Berliner Symphoniker, Weimar Staatskapelle, Frankfurt (Oder) Symphoniker, Tampere Symphony, Copenhagen Tivoli Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National, Russian State Symphony and Odense Symfoniorkester. He has conducted performances at the Kölner Philharmonie, Salzburg Großes Festspielhaus, Royal Albert Hall in London, Tampere Hall, the Champs Elysées Theatre in Paris, Palau della Musica in Barcelona, Saragossa Hall of Concerts, Grand Hall of the Moscow State Pyotr Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and elsewhere. Rinkevičius’ performs across Europe, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has conducted in international festivals (such as Nyon in Switzerland, Costa de Estoril in Portugal, Warsaw Autumn in Warsaw, Europamusicale in Munich, Chichester in Great Britain and Pontivy in France). His appearances with world-famous artists include the names of Violeta Urmana, Sergej Larin, Matti Salminen, Katia Ricciarelli, Victor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Paul Donohoe, Oleg Kagan, Gidon Kremer, David Geringas and Roger Muraro.
Gintaras Rinkevičius stages operas at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre; in 1987 he supervised Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio at the National Theatre of Hungary; in 1988 at the Klaipėda Musical Theatre, he staged the opera Mažvydas by Žigaitytė-Nekrošienė; in 1993, with the troupe of the Amsterdam Musical Theatre, he produced a ballet based on Mozart’s Requiem; in 1998 he made his debut with Carmen at the Gothenburg Opera; in 2003 he produced a concert performance of Drot og marsk by Peter Heiss in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. Rinkevičius was the Latvian National Opera’s artistic director and chief conductor between 1996 and2003, and was invited to Malmö Opera as chief conductor from 2002 to 2005. In 2006 he made his début at the Scottish Opera (Carmen). Since 2003 he has conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades and Puccini La Bohème ).
Since the foundation of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in 1988, Maestro Rinkevičius has been its chief conductor and artistic director. Today his artistic repertoire includes all the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Shostakovich, as well as more than 20 operas and ballets. He has directed many Lithuanian and world premières: Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 , Franck’s oratorio The Beatitudes, and Itaipu by Philip Glass, as well as works by Lithuanian composers such as the oratorio A Letter to all the Congregation by Algirdas Martinaitis and Agnus Dei by Feliksas Bajoras.
