© Gedmantas Kropis

The winner of the second prize at the 2005 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, pianist Gabrielius Alekna has appeared as a soloist in Vienna’s Musikverein with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Bertrand de Billy. Alekna has also been a featured soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra, the New Amsterdam and Adelphi Symphony Orchestras in New York, Wartburg Community Symphony in Iowa, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, and with the Belarus State Symphony Orchestra in Minsk, while in his native country the pianist appears regularly with major orchestras including the National Symphony, the State Symphony, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestras, the Christopher Chamber, and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestras.

Described by Daniel Barenboim as “a highly gifted pianist and musician,” Mr. Alekna has garnered more than a dozen top prizes in competitions on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Hilton Head (United States), Maria Canals (Spain), and Čiurlionis (Lithuania) International Piano Competitions. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, Alekna graduated from the National M. K. Čiurlionis School for the Arts in Vilnius and continued his studies at the Lithuanian Music Academy. In 1996, Alekna was invited to attend the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal and becoming the first Lithuanian to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School. In 2003, Alekna was one of six pianists invited by Carnegie Hall for The Daniel Barenboim Workshop: The Beethoven Piano Sonatas. His recorded performances were broadcast on the BBC, Österreich 1, and EuroClassic radio programs in twelve European countries, while in the US he was heard on WQXR, WWFM, and on XM satellite radio.

Alekna is passionately interested in the piano music by the 20th Century Lithuanian avant-garde composers Vytautas Bacevičius and Jeronimas Kačinskas and has released albums of works by both composers. Alekna has given solo recitals in New York, Washington D.C., Geneva, Vienna, Greenwich, and in Lithuania and Belarus. Alekna’s other engagements have included a recital tour of ten U.S. and Canadian cities in celebration of the 100th year anniversary of M. K. Čiurlionis, and performances at numerous festivals and collaborations with well-known artists.

In 2019, Alekna joined piano faculty at Brooklyn College of City University of New York. In 2011-2016, he was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Music Academy of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, and in 2013 has co-founded the Birštonas Summer
Arts Academy (Lithuania).

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