Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. Her Music Directorship was extended through the 2020-21 season.

Highlights of her 2018-19 season include numerous European tours with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performances with the New York Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Filharmonica della Scalla, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the National Symphony Orchestra. She will also take part in highly anticipated events such as the CBSO Song Festival and the BBC Proms.

Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. In Europe, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, 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, Mirga has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Heidelberg, Salzburg, Komische Oper Berlin, and Bern, where she served as Kapellmeister. In North America, she has worked with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Seattle and San Diego symphonies and led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinytė-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow in the 2012-13 season, Assistant Conductor (2014-2016), and Associate Conductor (2016-17 season). Gražinytė-Tyla was the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017. 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 was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009. 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 University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. Mirga 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, and Colin Metters.