Guest Concert in Vienna I

Mirga Gražinyte-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. Under her direction the CBSO has given numerous acclaimed performances at home and on international tours. She stepped down as music director of the CBSO at the end of the 21/22 season, was the Orchestra's principal guest conductor for the 22/23 season and continues to be closely connected with the Orchestra as Associate Artist from the fall of 2023 onward.
Gražinyte-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. Recent and upcoming highlights include returns to the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as the Münchner Philharmoniker at home and on tour to Lucerne, Cologne and Berlin; debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden and at the Teatro Real in Madrid with a new production of Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger. Britten's War Requiem at the Salzburg Festival, a new production of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Bayerische Staatsoper directed by Barrie Kosky, as well as guest appearances with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In Europe and the US, she has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestre National de France, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the MDR Leipzig, the Orchestre National de Lyon, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Vienna, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the San Diego Symphony and led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2018.

At the Kremerata Baltica, she has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Munich, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Berlin and Bern. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinyte-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow in the 2012-13 season, Assistant Conductor (2014-16), and Associate Conductor (2016-17). She was the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017. Winner of the 2012 Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburger Festspiele.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon Artist since 2018, her first album on the yellow label was released in the spring of 2019. It delighted critics and listeners worldwide and was hailed as an essential contribution to the rediscovery of Mieczysław Weinberg's Œuvre, winning also the Opus Klassik and Grammophon Awards later in 2020. The recording was the result of a cooperation of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer. A second recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon in November 2019. This features works by her compatriot Raminta Šerkšnytė and was followed by her most recent CD „The British Project" including works by Elgar, Britten, Walton and Vaughan Williams in July 2021.
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.

Lang Lang is a leading figure in classical music today – as a pianist, educator and philanthropist he has become one of the world’s most influential and committed ambassadors for the arts in the 21st century. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, he is a master of communicating through music.

Heralded by the New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet”, Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts all over the world. He has formed ongoing collaborations with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim and Christoph Eschenbach and performs with all the world’s top orchestras. Lang Lang is known for thinking outside the box and frequently steps into different musical worlds. His performances at the GRAMMY Awards with Metallica, Pharrell Williams or jazz legend Herbie Hancock were watched by millions of viewers.

For about a decade Lang Lang has contributed to musical education worldwide. In 2008 he founded the Lang Lang International Music Foundation aimed at cultivating tomorrow’s top pianists, championing music education at the forefront of technology, and building a young audience through live music experiences. In 2013 Lang Lang was designated by the Secretary General of the United Nations as a
Messenger of Peace focusing on global education.

Lang Lang started playing the piano aged three, and gave his first public recital before the age of five.

He entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory aged nine, and won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at 13. He subsequently went to Philadelphia to study with legendary pianist Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. He was seventeen when his big break came, substituting for André Watts at the Gala of the Century, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the
baton of Christoph Eschenbach: he became an overnight sensation and the invitations started to pour in.

Lang Lang’s boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition: he was presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and was picked as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. He is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University. In December 2011 he was honoured with the highest prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and received the highest civilian honours in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters). In 2016 Lang Lang was invited to the Vatican to perform for Pope Francis. He has also performed for numerous other international dignitaries, including four US presidents and monarchs from many nations.