Rūta Lipinaitytė (Lithuania)
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.
The violinist’s academic activities include management of a wide range of cultural development projects, and organisation of concerts, master courses, and competitions. Rūta Lipinaitytė is one of the main organisers and the artistic director of the Jascha Heifetz Violin Competition in Lithuania, the organizer of annual Lithuanian String Competition, Raimundas Katilius Competition for Young Performers and competition-festival “Baltic Strings”.
Rūta Lipinaitytė 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, the Violin Competition Karol Lipinski in Poland, the Il and the IV Piccolo Violino Magico Competitions in Italy „Violinissimo” in Kazakhstan, Jascha Heifetz Violin Competition in Lithuania, Sigulda Competition of Young Musicians in Latvia, the Latvian and the Estonian String Competitions for young string players, international competitions for young string players named “Baltic Strings” and “Premio Scarlatti”, as well as many national competitions. Also in 2021-2023 the violinist was an expert of the Lithuanian Council of Culture.
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 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.
Rūta has released several music albums.. The Lithuanian radio archives store over 40 audio recordings of the violinist’s performance together with various Lithuanian orchestras. 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. She has been Guest Concertmaster of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and the Eesti Sinfonietta.
Rūta Lipinaitytė has also performed chamber music worldwide together with G. Kremer, T. Grindenko, M. Fedotova, K. Sidorova, A. Mustonen, A. Posch, M. Marcelli, P. Sadlo, S. Krimer, L. Geniušas among others.