Biography
Composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (Zhee-bu-OH-kleh Mar-teen-aye-TEE-teh) has earned notice and praise across her native Lithuania, the United States, and western Europe through expansive, richly textured compositions that conjure taut, shifting dreamscapes. Prestigious fellowships in both the U.S. and France have supported her work.
Born May 4, 1973, in Leningrad in the Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia) to Lithuanian parents, she relocated with her family to Kaunas, Lithuania. From 1979 to 1991 she attended the Art School of Juozas Naujalis there. She continued her training at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius under Bronius Kutavičius and Julius Juzeliūnas, completing her studies in 1997. During the following years she took part in summer composition courses in Germany, Austria, France, and Norway, studying with Brian Ferneyhough, José Evangelista, and Jonathan Harvey.
Throughout the 2000s she produced a series of chamber pieces that clarified her individual language, among them Attention! High Tension! for tuba and piano (2001) and Completely Embraced by the Beauty of Emptiness for 13 instruments (2006). When Vilnius was named a European Capital of Culture in 2009, she created the orchestral score A Thousand Doors to the World; Euro Radio later transmitted the piece to an audience of roughly four million listeners.
Her first significant exposure in the United States arrived via a 2008 MATA Festival commission in New York, where the Knights Chamber Orchestra presented Polarities. That same year marked the beginning of three residencies at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Additional residencies followed at the Aaron Copland House in 2010 and again in 2019, the Djerassi Artists Residency in 2017, and the Willapa Bay Residency in 2018. Ensembles such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Canada), the Smith Quartet (U.K.), and the Orchestra of Mons Royal Conservatoire (Belgium) have performed her music throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2020 she received both a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.
Several works appear on recordings; her debut solo album, In Search of Lost Beauty, was issued by the Starkland label in 2019. Under contract with the major Ondine label, she released Saudade in 2021.
Born May 4, 1973, in Leningrad in the Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia) to Lithuanian parents, she relocated with her family to Kaunas, Lithuania. From 1979 to 1991 she attended the Art School of Juozas Naujalis there. She continued her training at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius under Bronius Kutavičius and Julius Juzeliūnas, completing her studies in 1997. During the following years she took part in summer composition courses in Germany, Austria, France, and Norway, studying with Brian Ferneyhough, José Evangelista, and Jonathan Harvey.
Throughout the 2000s she produced a series of chamber pieces that clarified her individual language, among them Attention! High Tension! for tuba and piano (2001) and Completely Embraced by the Beauty of Emptiness for 13 instruments (2006). When Vilnius was named a European Capital of Culture in 2009, she created the orchestral score A Thousand Doors to the World; Euro Radio later transmitted the piece to an audience of roughly four million listeners.
Her first significant exposure in the United States arrived via a 2008 MATA Festival commission in New York, where the Knights Chamber Orchestra presented Polarities. That same year marked the beginning of three residencies at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Additional residencies followed at the Aaron Copland House in 2010 and again in 2019, the Djerassi Artists Residency in 2017, and the Willapa Bay Residency in 2018. Ensembles such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Canada), the Smith Quartet (U.K.), and the Orchestra of Mons Royal Conservatoire (Belgium) have performed her music throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2020 she received both a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.
Several works appear on recordings; her debut solo album, In Search of Lost Beauty, was issued by the Starkland label in 2019. Under contract with the major Ondine label, she released Saudade in 2021.
Albums