BIRUTE VAINIUNAITE was born in Kaunas. She studied at the Vilnius M. K. Ciurlionis School of Art; from 1965 to 1970 at the Lithuanian Academy of Music (with Prof. M. Azizbekova); and as a post-graduate from 1970 to 1972 at the Moscow Conservatoire (with Prof. J. Milstein). During 1975-1976 she trained at the Paris National Conservatoire under Prof. V. Perlemuter.
Winner of the first Ciurlionis Piano Competition (1965) and of the fourteenth Berlin Virtuosi Competition (1991), B. Vainiunaite presently teaches at the Lithuanian Academy of Music.
B. Vainiunaite frequently performs with other instrumentalists, and has appaeared in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, Spain, Sweden, USA, and in many cities in Russia. She played in Paris in 1976, and has performed there annually since 1990; she toured Germany with great success in 1994 and 1996, and has led master courses both there and in Lithuania. Prof. B. Vainiunaite has been on the jury at several international competitions: The International Stasys Vainiunas Pianist Competition (1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001), First International piano duo competition, Visaginas 1997. She has performed with orchestras conducted by J. Domarkas, G. Rinkevicius, S. Sondeckis, and others. Her concerts are frequently broadcast by Lithuanian Radio and Television, and she has released several records.
Although the pianist performs various peirod music with an exquisite feeling for style, she has a great fondness for works by modern composers. B. Vainiunaite was the first to introduce Lithuanian audiences to O. Messiaen, M. Ohana, G. Crumb, P. Vasks, etc., and is entrusted by prominent Lithuanian composers with their latest works.
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