Rūta Lipinaitytė
RŪTA LIPINAITYTĖ is a violin professor and since 2015 has worked as Head of String Department at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The violinist often gives violin master classes both in Lithuania and abroad. More than 50 students of Rūta Lipinaitytė’s classes have become laureates of national and international violin competitions.
Rūta Lipinaitytė is the artistic director of the Jascha Heifetz Violin Competition in Lithuania and has been invited as a member of the jury at international violin competitions including the Violin Competition Vaclav Huml in Croatia, the Violin Competition Arthur Grumiaux in Belgium, „Violinissimo” in Kazakhstan, Sigulda Competition of Young Musicians in Latvia, the Latvian String Competition, the Il and the IV Piccolo Violino Magico Competition, as well as national competitions such as the Little Talents International Competition for Young Performers, Raimundas Katilius Competition for Young Performers, National Balys Dvarionas Piano and String Competition for Youth, National Jonas Urba String Competition, and many others.
The violinist is the laureate of several Lithuanian and international violin and chamber music competitions. As a soloist, Rūta Lipinaitytė has appeared with numerous orchestras including Dresden Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra Taiwan Artists Symphony Orchestra (TASO), the Lithuanian National and State Symphony Orchestras, Kremerata Baltica, Camerata Kazakhsan, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, as well as chamber orchestras of Klaipėda, Vytautas Magnus University, Šiauliai, Tallinn, and Arkhangelsk, the State Wind Orchestra Trimitas, Accademia d’Archi Arrigoni Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Chamber orchestra “The Seasons”, and Ensemble Musica Humana. In 2022, Rūta Lipinaitytė made her debut as a soloist with the Eesti Sinfonietta in the renowned Wiener Konzerthaus.
The violinist has received several State Scholarships for Lithuanian Artists and a scholarship by the Yamaha Music Europe Foundation. In 2020, Rūta Lipinaitytė won the Golden Disc Award of the Lithuanian Musicians' Union in the category of solo instrumentalists.
Rūta Lipinaitytė’s repertoire is versatile and diverse, yet her heart is with the Lithuanian contemporary music. Rūta Lipinaitytė is the first performer of many works by Lithuanian composers. Several composers such as A. Martinaitis, J. Tamulionis, J. Juozapaitis, J. Jurkūnas, M. Salynas have dedicated their music to the violinist. In 2023 Lipinaitytė performed the Violin Concerto by Lithuanian composer B. Dvarionas in several cities in Taiwan.
Rūta has released several music albums. In 2022, an international recording company Ondine released a CD with music by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis including a violin concerto Three M’art Comedy Seasons performed by Rūta Lipinaitytė. The Lithuanian radio archives store over 40 audio recordings of the violinist’s performance together with various Lithuanian orchestras. There is a video recording of J. Corigliano’s Violin Concerto, The Red Violin, featuring Rūta Lipinaitytė as a soloist, released together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. In 2020, violinist initiated an independent project: through various social networking platforms, she has been promoting music by Lithuanian composers for violin solo: to date, this initiative has featured over 20 video recordings of such works performed by Rūta.
Rūta Lipinaitytė was a member of Grammy-winning orchestra Kremerata Baltica (since its foundation in 1998 to 2014) established and headed by Gidon Kremer. The violinist is often invited to participate in various orchestral projects as a concertmaster or an assistant concertmaster. Lipinaitytė has repeatedly appeared as Concertmaster of the East-West Chamber Orchestra at Yuri Bashmet International Festival. She has been Guest Concertmaster of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and the Eesti Sinfonietta. The musician has been invited on tour with the Stuttgart SWR Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster and performed in Russia, Japan, and Europe with the MusicAeterna Symphony Orchestra led by Teodor Currentzis.