Giedre Šlekyte & Johan Dalene

Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, Giedrė Šlekytė began her musical education at the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art-School in Vilnius. She went on to study conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, the Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig and the Zurich University of Arts. She also attended masterclasses by Bernhard Haitink and Riccardo Muti.

In the 2024/25 season, Šlekytė will make her debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper (Boheme) and Royal Opera House in London (Hansel and Gretel), as well as returning to Musiktheater an der Wien for a new production of Das Paradies und die Peri and Staatsoper Berlin with The Pearl Fishers and Sacre. Upcoming symphonic projects encompass debuts with the Dallas Symphony (also marking her debut in the USA), Philharmonia London and Tokyo NHK Symphony, as well as returns to Münchner Philharmoniker, SWR Symphonieorchester, RSB Berlin and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.

In 2016, Šlekytė was appointed Principal Conductor of Stadttheater Klagenfurt, where she led her first own production – Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. Since then, audience and press have heaped praise on the young Lithuanian maestra, citing the freshness, precision and dynamism of her interpretations. Finishing her appointment in Klagenfurt in 2018, Šlekytė chose a freelance career as a conductor and has since been successfully combining operatic and symphonic projects.

As a guest conductor she has performed with the Wiener Symphoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Tokyo Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Netherlands Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, and many others.

In November 2023, jumping in for Daniel Barenboim, she conducted Brahms’ highly acclaimed symphony cycle in Toronto with the Berlin Staatskapelle, marking both her Canadian and North American debut.

Operatic engagements led her to Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Zürich, Staatsoper Berlin, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, and Semperoper Dresden. Among the most memorable new productions are Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at Musiktheater an der Wien and Kát’a Kabanová at Komische Oper Berlin, Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Royal Danish Opera, Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka at Opera Ballett Vlaanderen, and Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at Oper Frankfurt.

In 2015 she was a finalist of the Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and a prize winner of the Malko International Young Conductors Competition in Copenhagen. In 2018 she was nominated in the “Newcomer” category of the International Opera Awards.

Šlekytė is an active ambassador of Lithuanian music and has performed works by Raminta Šerkšnytė, Bronius Kutavičius, Osvaldas Balakauskas, Justė Janulytė, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and other Lithuanian composers in Austria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany and Israel. With conductor Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, she recorded an album of Raminta Šerkšnytė’s music, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon, as well as the highly acclaimed Žibuoklė Martinaitytė album for Ondine.

Winner of the 2019 prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene “is not just a virtuoso like many others, he is a voice. He has a tone, a presence” (Diapason). At the age of 24, he has performed with leading orchestras and in celebrated recital halls both at home and abroad. His ability to “make his Stradivarius sing like a master” (Le Monde), coupled with his refreshingly honest musicality and engagement with musicians and audiences alike, has won him countless admirers. In 2022, he was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year.

After simultaneous residencies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Gavle Symphony, Johan takes on a new collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Antonello Manacorda and Robert Trevino. An advocate for new music, he continues to perform the concerto written for him by Tebogo Monnakgotla, notably with the Berlin Radio Symphony and Giedrė Slekyte, having given the world premiere with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and John Storgards in April 2023. Johan’s other recent and forthcoming highlights include debut performances with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Sondergaard, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Sakari Oramo and San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen; return appearances with the Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Warsaw Philharmonic.

Johan is equally passionate about chamber music and will be going back to North America to give recitals, notably on the Vancouver Recital Series, San Francisco Performances and at the Gardner Music in Boston, as well as making his debut tour in Australia. He is otherwise making return appearances at the Verbier and Rosendal festivals, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, where he is now a regular guest.

Recording exclusively for BIS, Johan released his fourth album on the label in October 2023, a recital disc comprising Ravel’s Sonata and Prokofiev’s Second Sonata, alongside short pieces by Arvo Part, Lili Boulanger and Grazyna Bacewicz. The Strad hailed this album as ‘interesting by its repertoire and marvellous by its quality’. His previous recording featured the Nielsen and Sibelius Concerti, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with John Storgards, and garnered Johan his third coveted ‘Editor’s Choice’ from Gramophone Magazine, as well as a prestigious Swedish Grammis Award.

Johan began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later. In Summer 2016, he was student-in-residence at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival (where he made his performance debut in 2021) and in 2018 was accepted on to the Norwegian Crescendo programme, where he worked closely with mentors Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes and Gidon Kremer. Andsnes subsequently invited Johan to play at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival and they performed together again in May 2019 at the Bergen International Festival. In 2019 he joined Janine Jansen and other members of the Crescendo Programme for a performance at the Wigmore Hall in London, and at the International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht.

Johan studied with Per Enoksson, Professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, as well as with Janine Jansen, and has also participated in masterclasses with several distinguished teachers, including Dora Schwarzberg, Pamela Frank, Gerhard Schulz, and Henning Kraggerud. He has been awarded various scholarships and prizes, notably from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, The Anders Wall Giresta Scholarship, Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Scholarship, The Håkan Mogren Foundation Prize, Equinor Classical Music Award, Norwegian Soloist Prize, Sixten Gemzéus Stora Musikstipendium, Expressen Cultural Prize Spelmannen and Rolf Wirténs Kulturpris. Johan plays the 1725 ‘Duke of Cambridge’ Stradivarius, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation.