Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, and Andris Nelsons. Under her direction the CBSO has given numerous acclaimed performances at home and on international tours. She stepped down as music director of the CBSO at the end of the 21/22 season, was the Orchestra's principal guest conductor for the 22/23 season and continues to be closely connected with the Orchestra as Associate Artist from the fall of 2023 onward.
Gražinyte-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. Recent and upcoming highlights include returns to the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as the Münchner Philharmoniker at home and on tour to Lucerne, Cologne, and Berlin; debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden and at the Teatro Real in Madrid with a new production of Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger. Britten's War Requiem at the Salzburg Festival, a new production of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Bayerische Staatsoper directed by Barrie Kosky, as well as guest appearances with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In Europe and the US, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla has collaborated with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestre National de France, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the MDR Leipzig, the Orchestre National de Lyon, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Vienna, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the San Diego Symphony and led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2018. At the Kremerata Baltica, she has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Munich, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Berlin, and Bern. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinyte-Tyla was a Dudamel Fellow in the 2012-13 season, Assistant Conductor (2014-16), and Associate Conductor (2016-17). She was the Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017. Winner of the 2012 Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made her debut with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a symphonic concert at the Salzburg Festival.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon Artist since 2018, her first album on the yellow label was released in the spring of 2019. It delighted critics and listeners worldwide and was hailed as an essential contribution to the rediscovery of Mieczysław Weinberg's Œuvre, winning also the Opus Klassik and Grammophon Awards later in 2020. The recording was the result of a cooperation of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, and Gidon Kremer. A second recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon in November 2019. This features works by her compatriot Raminta Šerkšnytė and was followed by her most recent CD The British Project including works by Elgar, Britten, Walton, and Vaughan Williams in July 2021.
A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, she was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory in Zurich, she studied at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy.
