Raminta Šerkšnytė

Raminta Šerkšnytė (born 1975) is a Lithuanian composer, pianist and associate professor of composition. She is a laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts (the highest artistic distinction in Lithuania, in 2008), in 2020 she was nominated (shortlisted) for a Gramophone Classical Music Award. Her De profundis for string orchestra (1998), composed when she was just twenty-two years of age, is one of the most popular and performed Lithuanian compositions across the world. Maestro Gidon Kremer described De profundis as “the calling card of Baltic music”.

Life and career

Raminta Šerkšnytė's creative output ranges from large-scale opera, orchestral compositions to chamber works and pieces for young audience. Her music is distinguished by its poetic nature, powerful emotional impact and its one-of-a-kind beauty created by Baltic mysticism and melancholy. The search for and coexistence of the archetypes from both Western and Eastern cultures are inherent in her music. She has invented her own composing system and called it the “fusion of major and minor”. Of her craft, she states: “I believe that peak experience and spiritual impact is the essence in the art, which can lead to the unforgettable transcendental experience. Composition is an uplifted state of mind materialized by means of sounds, though its impressiveness depends on the composer’s technical mastery".

Raminta Šerkšnytė’s music has been performed by the violinists Gidon Kremer, Irvine Arditti, Hugo Ticciati, conductors Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Mariss Jansons, Giedrė Šlekytė, the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and numerous other musicians. The works have been performed at the Lincoln Center (New York), the Wiener Musikverein, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Berlin Philharmonic, have been featured at the festivals the ISCM World Music Days, the Gaudeamus Music Week, the Baltic Sea Festival, the Lucerne Festival, etc.

Raminta Šerkšnytė’s music is included in releases by Deutsche Grammophon,  Nonesuch, BR-Klassik, Sono Luminus and Music Information Centre Lithuania.

Raminta Šerkšnytė was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, into the family of a mathematician and a doctor. She began to study piano and the music theory from an early age. Later, she studied composition under Prof. Osvaldas Balakauskas at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and also in various composers’ masterclasses and workshops abroad. She lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Awards

Works

List of works:[1]

Orchestra

  • De profundis, 1998
  • Aisbergas, 2000
  • Koncertas, 2002
  • Kalnai migloje, 2005
  • Mažojo princo pasaka, 2007
  • Žara, 2008
  • This too shall pass, for violin, cello, vibraphone and string orchestra, 2021

Solo instrument

  • Pasakalija, 1995
  • Fantazija, 1997
  • Adagio, 1999
  • Adieu, 2002
  • Miražas, 2003
  • Trys ostinato preliudai, 2007

Chamber

  • Styginių kvartetas, 1994
  • Misterioso, 1994
  • Trys koncertinės pjesės, 1995
  • Vizijos, 1995
  • Žvelgiant į pasąmonę (Looking at the Subconscious) for flute and viola (1997)
  • Koncertas šešiems, 1999
  • Basso ostinato, 2001
  • Rytų elegija, 2002
  • Idée fixe, 2002
  • Nuojautos (Presentiments) for flute, viola and 1~4 prepared pianos (2002)
  • Sūkurys, 2004
  • Miražai, 2005
  • Migdolų žydėjimas, 2006

Vocal

  • Saula, 2004
  • Sense Six, 2004

Choral

  • Aurei Regina Caeli, 1996
  • Saulėlydžio ir aušros giesmės, 2007
  • Sakura, 2018

For children

  • Supasi lapai nubudinti, 1995
  • Andante, 1997
  • Vakaro atspindžiai, 1997
  • Mažasis preliudas, 1998
  • Baladė, 1998
  • Šaltinėlis, 1998
  • Dvi invencijos, 2003

References

  1. ^ "List of Works by Categories".