Biography
Making history as the first accordionist to reach the top of Britain’s Classical Albums sales chart, Martynas Levickis also became the inaugural player of his instrument to receive a contract from the long-established Decca label after triumphing as a teenager on Lithuania’s Got Talent.
Born June 11, 1990, in Taurage, Lithuania, he took up the accordion at age three and spent the following five years teaching himself. At eight he entered the Saulius-Sondeckis arts high school in Siauliai, where he began collecting titles in national and international competitions during the mid-2000s. In 2008 he relocated to London’s Royal Academy of Music to study with Owen Murray; without informing his instructors, he auditioned for and won Lithuania’s Got Talent by fusing classical repertoire with pop arrangements, a blend he has maintained in live appearances and recordings ever since. Footage of the victory circulated in England, drawing an early British following, and the same year he captured the Accordion World Championship, also known as the Coupe Mondiale. Between 2014 and 2016 he completed a master’s degree at the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco in San Sebastian, Spain, under Iñaki Alberdi while attending master classes given by Frédéric Deschamps, Claudio Jacomucci, Friedrich Lips and additional teachers.
His orchestral engagements have included the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, while solo programs have been presented at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and Seoul’s Gangdong Arts Center. Festival appearances have ranged from the Berlin Waldbühne to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Lübeck. In 2014 he established Lithuania’s Palendriai Festival, dedicated to commissioning new works for accordion and chamber ensemble.
U.K. agent Rick Blaskey discovered the Lithuania’s Got Talent clips online and arranged Levickis’s Decca contract, resulting in the 2013 release issued simply as Martynas—an early-career practice of using only his given name. He returned to recording in 2021 on the Accentus label with an album devoted to Astor Piazzolla.
Born June 11, 1990, in Taurage, Lithuania, he took up the accordion at age three and spent the following five years teaching himself. At eight he entered the Saulius-Sondeckis arts high school in Siauliai, where he began collecting titles in national and international competitions during the mid-2000s. In 2008 he relocated to London’s Royal Academy of Music to study with Owen Murray; without informing his instructors, he auditioned for and won Lithuania’s Got Talent by fusing classical repertoire with pop arrangements, a blend he has maintained in live appearances and recordings ever since. Footage of the victory circulated in England, drawing an early British following, and the same year he captured the Accordion World Championship, also known as the Coupe Mondiale. Between 2014 and 2016 he completed a master’s degree at the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco in San Sebastian, Spain, under Iñaki Alberdi while attending master classes given by Frédéric Deschamps, Claudio Jacomucci, Friedrich Lips and additional teachers.
His orchestral engagements have included the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, while solo programs have been presented at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and Seoul’s Gangdong Arts Center. Festival appearances have ranged from the Berlin Waldbühne to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Lübeck. In 2014 he established Lithuania’s Palendriai Festival, dedicated to commissioning new works for accordion and chamber ensemble.
U.K. agent Rick Blaskey discovered the Lithuania’s Got Talent clips online and arranged Levickis’s Decca contract, resulting in the 2013 release issued simply as Martynas—an early-career practice of using only his given name. He returned to recording in 2021 on the Accentus label with an album devoted to Astor Piazzolla.
Albums
