Irena Milkevičiūtė
Professor at the LMTA Department of Vocal Performance. Subjects: Vocal Performance.
Irena Milkevičiūtė, an acclaimed soprano, boasts an impressive range of leading lyric and dramatic soprano parts such as, among others, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, Violetta in La Traviata, Leonora Il trovatore (The Troubadour), Amelia in Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball), Leonora in La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny), Desdemona in Otello, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Abigaille in Nabucco; Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana; Norma in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma; Turandot in Turandot, Tosca in Tosca, and Butterfly in Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini; Richard Wagner’s Princess Elisabeth in Tanhäuser, Brünnhilde in Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Senta in Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman); also Tatyana in Евгений Онегин (Eugene Onegin), Lisa in Пиковая дама (The Queen of Spades), and Maria in Мазепа (Mazeppa) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė has appeared on the stages of the world-famous opera and concert halls: the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (Russia), La Scala in Italy, the Metropolitan Opera in the USA, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw (Poland), the Latvian National Opera, and Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia in Rome (Italy). The famous singer has performed all around the world — in Croatia, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Japan, Spain, the USA (New York Carnegie Hall, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Uruguay (Montevideo), and Taiwan.
The world-class performer has partnered on stage with other major singers Irina Archipova, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Maria Bieșu, Gegham Grigoryan, Maria Guleghina, Paata Burchuladze, Sergej Larin, Violeta Urmana, Olga Borodina, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Dolora Zajick, Leo Nucci, and Fiorenza Cossotto. She has performed under the baton of famous conductors Valery Gergiev, Fuat Mansurov, Paolo Olmi, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Saulius Sondeckis, Jonas Aleksa, and Juozas Domarkas.
Irena Milkevičiūtė has performed with symphony orchestras of France, Austria, the USA, and Japan and now works together with the National Operas in Latvia and Poland (The Grand Theatre–National Opera in Warsaw). The singer has been invited to join as a judge of the international evaluation committee of the soloist qualifications at the Latvian National Opera. She was a member of the Commission for Traineeships at the LNOBT Opera Studies.
The famed soprano has won numerous competitions such as, among many others, the 1st place at the Mikhail Glinka International Competition (1977); a diploma at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1978), the 2nd place at the International Ferenc Erkel and Zoltan Kodaly Competition (1982); and the 2nd place at the Madam Butterfly International Competition (Japan, 1986).
Irena Milkevičiūtė is the winner of the Lithuanian National Award (1988), the National Culture and Arts Award (2000) and has been twice titled the Best Opera Soloist of the Year (2002, 2003). Her merits and achievements have been recognised with such significant awards as the Kristoforas Prize awarded by the Lithuanian Theatre Association (1995); the Lithuanian 3rd degree Medal of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (1996), the Kipras Award by the Society of Lithuanian Opera Fans (1998), Cavalry Medal of Order and Cross for Artistic Achievements in Poland (1999), the Aldaris Award by the Latvian National Opera (2001), Operos Švyturiai Award as the Best Female Opera Soloist of the Year in 2003; the Golden Disc awarded by the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union (2012), Medal of Honour Carry Your Light and Believe awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania (2013), and, most recently, the most significant award bestowed by the Lithuanian Theatre — the Golden Cross of the Stage (2020).