Giedrė Šlekytė
About this Artist
Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, Giedrė Šlekytė began her musical education at the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius. She went on to study conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, the Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, and the Zurich University of the Arts. She also attended master classes by Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Muti.
In the 2024/25 season, Šlekytė made her debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper (La bohème) and Royal Opera House in London (Hansel and Gretel) and returned to MusikTheater an der Wien for a new production of Das Paradies und die Peri and Staatsoper Berlin with The Pearl Fishers and Sacre.
Recent symphonic projects include debuts with the Dallas Symphony (also marking her US debut), Philharmonia London, and Tokyo NHK Symphony, as well as returns to Münchner Philharmoniker, SWR Symphonieorchester, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.
In 2016, Šlekytė was appointed Principal Conductor of Stadttheater Klagenfurt, where she led her first production—Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. Since then, audiences and press have praised the young Lithuanian conductor, citing the freshness, precision, and dynamism of her interpretations. Finishing her appointment in Klagenfurt in 2018, Šlekytė chose a freelance career as a conductor and has since been successfully navigating operatic and symphonic projects.
As a guest conductor she has also performed with the Wiener Symphoniker, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and many others.
In November 2023, she jumped in for Daniel Barenboim to conduct a highly acclaimed Brahms symphony cycle in Toronto with the Berlin Staatskapelle, marking her Canadian and North American debut.
Operatic engagements have led her to Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Zürich, Staatsoper Berlin, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, and Semperoper Dresden. In 2015 she was a finalist for the Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and a prize winner of the Malko Competition for young conductors in Copenhagen. In 2018 she was nominated in the “Newcomer” category of the International Opera Awards.
Šlekytė is an ambassador of Lithuanian music and has performed works by Raminta Šerkšnytė, Bronius Kutavičius, Osvaldas Balakauskas, Justė Janulytė, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, and other Lithuanian composers in Austria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Israel. With conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, she recorded an album of Raminta Šerkšnytė’s music, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon. She also recorded a highly acclaimed Žibuoklė Martinaitytė album for Ondine.