Biography

Born in Lithuania, Giedre Šlekyte began her musical educa­tion at the National Mikalojus Kon­stan­tinas Ciurlionis Art-School in Vilnius. She went on to study conducting at the Uni­versity of Music and Fine Arts in Graz (with Prof. Johannes Prinz and Prof. Martin Sieghart), the Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig (with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr and Prof. Matthias Foremny) and the University of Fine Arts in Zurich, where she spent one term with Prof. Johannes Schlaefli. She also attended master classes of Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti and Mario Venzago.

Inter­natio­nally sought after as a guest conductor Giedre Šlekyte has already worked with Royal Stock­holm Phil­harmo­nic, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sächsische Staats­kapelle Dresden, Kon­zert­haus­orchester Berlin, hr-sinfonie­orchester Frankfurt, Orchestre Phil­har­monique de Radio France, RTV Orches­tra Ljubl­jana, Lithuanian National Symphony Orches­tra, Teatro Comunale Bologna, MDR Leipzig, Gothen­burg Symphony and Orchestre Phil­har­monique de Luxem­bourg, among others.

After her engage­ment as 1st Kapell­meis­ter at Stadt­theater Klagenfurt 2016-18 Giedre Šlekyte conducted opera in Leipzig, Zurich, Vilnius and at the Salzburg Festival.

In 2019/20 she received invi­tations for new produc­tions from the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen (»The Hand­maid’s Tale«), the Royal Flemish Opera Antwerp (»Rusalka«) and the Oper Leipzig (»L'elisir d'amore«). In addition she conducted a revival of »Le nozze di Figaro« at the Lithua­nian National Opera in Vilnius. In this season symphonic engagements and re-invitations bring her to Swedish Radio Orches­tra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lorraine and Lithuanian National Symphony Orches­tra.

Giedre Šlekyte is a prize winner of the the Inter­national Malko Compe­tition for Young Conduc­tors 2015 in Copen­hagen and received the 2nd prize at the Inter­national Conducting Compe­tition Solon Michaeli­des 2013 in Cyprus (1st prize not awarded). In March 2015 she was nominated for the Salzburg Festival Young Conduc­tors Award and in 2018 as »Newcomer of the year« at the Inter­natio­nal Opera Awards.