Sigutė Stonytė (soprano) 1982 graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music, studying solo singing with Prof. Z.Paulauskas. Since 1985 she has been the soloist with the Lithuanian Opera Theatre. In 1992 she started teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and is currently a Professor and one of Lithuania‘s most acclaimed teachers of vocal performance, often giving master classes abroad. She is also a judge in many local and international singing competitions.

In 1991 Sigutė Stonytė was awarded the second prize at the International Marian Anderson Vocal Arts Competition in Meryland (USA). In 1996 she became a laureate of Kristoforas Prize for Lady Macbeth‘s role in G.Verdi‘s opera Macbeth, in 1999 – a laureate of Kipras Prize of the Society of Lithuanian Opera Friends. In 2000 she was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. In 2003 she received a Special Prize given by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania for her interpretations of Amelia in G. Verdi‘s “Un ballo in maschera” and Zerlina in W. A. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. One year later she has been honoured with the Lithuanian National Prize - the most important award given to Lithuanian artists for their achievements. In 2005 the soloist was also given the “Operos Švyturiai“ Award as the Best Female Soloist of the Year. Her newest award is the “Golden Cross of the Stage” Award (2011), given for her portrayal of Countess Rosina Almaviva in W. A. Mozart's “Le nozze di Figaro”.

In 1992 Sigutė Stonytė participated in a music festival Verdianaeum in La Roncole (Italy) and in 1993 in a Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland (with the Lithuanian Opera).

Sigutė Stonytė has given concerts in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweeden, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Taiwan, the USA, and Japan. She sung with symphony orchestras in the USA‘s J.F.Kennedy Center in Washington, with the Moscow Philharmonic, Odense (Denmark), Lithuanian State and National, Estonian and Latvian symphony orchestras, with the Lithuanian chamber orchestra, etc. She sung under conductors Leo Kramer, Justus Frantz (Germany), together with bass Simon Estes (USA).

As a singer, she created the main roles in many operas including G.Verdi’s La Traviata (Violetta), Un ballo in maschera (Amelia), Nabucco (Abigaille), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Aida (Aida), La forza del destino (Leonora), G.Puccini’s Tosca (Tosca), Turandot (Liu), Suor Angelica, C.M. von Weber’s Der Freischütz (Agathe), R.Wagner’s Tannhäuser (Elisabeth), Ch.Gounod’s Faust (Marguerite), P.Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Tatyana), Pique Dame (Liza), Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander (Senta). She also has performed solo parts in oratorios and cantatas – J.S.Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, G. Verdi’s Requiem, A.Bruckner’s Requiem and Te Deum, A.Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, F.Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, A.Honegger’s Jeanne d'Arc au bucher, B.Britten’s War Requiem. She is the permanent concert partner of her husband pianist Jurgis Karnavičius. She is a leading soloist of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

"Sigutė Stonytė opened the program with Verdi’s Tacea la notte placida from Il Trovatore. Frail and enhtereal in spectral silver, she unleashed a flood of unmistakably Russian tones, rich, vibrant, sparked by an attack of stunning muscular coordination and dramatic immediacy, and strong as a contralto in the medium and low registers. In the cabaletta she displayed a coloratura wonderfully nimble for a voice of this weight, with each tone both brilliantly phonated and in tight rhythm, and her performance of Tatyana’s letter scene from Tchaikovski’s Eugene Onegin proved she is well versed in this literature."

M.Adamo. The Washington Post, July 21, 1991

"S.Stonytė has a soprano with a divinely beautiful, slender lyric in the pitch and get you completely leave the earth, when she executes "Inflammatus et accentus."

S.Novrup. Fyens Stiftstidende

"Sigutė Stonytė was brightly distinguished among soloists. Her frank and beautiful soprano simply forced the bravo - exclamation of audience."

T.Salakka-Kontunen. Etela-Suomen Sanomat