"… A completely different personality, the 21-year-old Lithuanian Guoda Gedvilaite played Rachmaninov`s Third Piano Concerto … with ultimate passion and temperament, irrepressibly and excitingly throughout"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
GUODA GEDVILAITE was born in 1975 in Lithuania. In 1992 she graduated from the M. Ciurlionis College of Arts and entered the Vilnius Music Academy, where she studied with Prof. Veronika Vitaite. Ms. Gedvilaite participated in master classes given by such world-renowned musicians as Mikhail Voskressensky, Lev Vlassenko, Vladimir Feltsman, Lev Natochenny, Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, Peter Eicher, Igor Lazko, Jose Ribeira and others.
She has performed with major orchestras, such as Lithuanian National Symphony, orchestras of Finland and Holland, under the baton of such world-class maestro as Juozas Domarkas, Terre Mikkelsen and Saulius Sondeckis with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Gedvilaite had a phenomenal success in 1995, winning First Prize at the Ciurlionis International Piano competition. In the years before that Ms. Gedvilaite had won international piano competitions in Czechoslovakia, the Schevening Competition in Netherlands and the Balys Dvarionas International Competition in Vilnius. In 1991 she captured major prizes of the Cincinnati and Oberlin International Piano Competitions in the USA.
In 1994 she was brought to the attention of Prof. Lev Natochenny at a music festival in Palanga. As a result of this introduction Guoda Gedvilaite was accepted as a student into the master class of Prof. Natochenny at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main in 1995, where she studies now. Ms. Gedvilaite was selected among only 10 of the best young pianists in the world to participate on full scholarship in Meranofest 96, 97 and 98: a prestigious International Music Festival and Academy for Superior Performance Studies in Italy. In 1997 Guoda Gedvilaite had a triumphant success winning the First Prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Paris and First Prize and "Public Prize" at the Chopin International competition in Hanover. Since then Ms. Gedvilaite has appeared in numerous concerts in Europe, among them prestigious music festivals such as "Musiksommer Gstaad" in Switzerland, "Festival International Piano et Musique de Chambre Guil-Durance" in France and series of concert tours in Lithuania. In summer 1999, the pianist has performed at the Lockenhaus Summer Festival, directed by Gidon Kremer, where she was in ensemble with the noted cellist David Geringas. She has received a fourth invitation to participate in Merano Festival (Italy) with solo performances. In March 2000 G.Gedvilaite was the first pianist to play the new "Steinway" piano in the new prestigious Vilnius Congress Concert Hall.
In March 98 G.Gedvilaite released her first CD with music by Johannes Brahms.
Since 1998 she has performed duos with famous Lithuanian violinist Vilhelmas Cepinskis. Every year they play a big tour in Lithuania, and they have also had concerts in Germany and the USA.
For further details, see www.classicalmusic.lt/guoda.htm