Daumantas Kirilauskas


Playing a Bösendorfer enables me to speak through music. The mechanics allow absolute control and make me feel safe. It feels as if the instrument is playing itself. This representative of Viennese tradition has an aristocratic warmth and a melodious sound that one cannot mistake for other instruments.

Daumantas Kirilauskas is an Associate Professor in the Piano Department at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He is often referred to as one of the most distinctive, versatile and productive Lithuanian pianists.

He has toured in all European countries, as well as the USA and Iran. He has performed in many major halls, such as the Mozarteum Grosser Saal, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Schumann Haus Bonn, Vitebsk Philharmonic, Helsinki Temppeliauki, Stockholm Nybrokajen, Oslo Concerthus, Köln WDR Klaus von Bismarck, the Great Guild Hall in Riga, and many others. Kirilauskas has performed with the best Lithuanian orchestras as a guest of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, as well as with Sinfonietta Riga and Lappeenranta City Orchestra. He participates in many Lithuanian and foreign festivals, and is a regular guest at the Thomas Mann Festival.

Kirilauskas’ repertoire ranges from the work of Bach and Händel to the most modern composers of the 21st century, but the opus of Beethoven holds a special place in his creative life. Apart from playing as a soloist, he has performed with many famous Lithuanian and foreign soloists and ensembles, including the Artis Quartet Wien in 2008. He has participated in numerous premières. In 2005, Kirilauskas was the first pianist in Lithuania to perform Chick Corea’s Concerto for piano and orchestra. In 2010, he performed the Concerto for piano and orchestra composed and dedicated to him by Miklos Maros. In 2013, Kirilauskas played ‘Divine Madness’ by Tomas Kutavičius for piano and symphony orchestra at the international Gaida festival. In 2018, he performed at the première of ‘Dialogai’, a composition by Osvaldas Balakauskas for piano and orchestra, dedicated to Kirilauskas.

He has released 12 solo recordings, which include all of J.S. Bach’s Partitas and three keyboard concertos, nine Beethoven piano sonatas, the Diabelli Variations opus 120, three Prokofiev piano sonatas, and many pieces of contemporary music.

Lithuanian Radio owns all of his recordings, nearly two hundred in total. He has cooperated with Giedrius Puskunigis and other film and theatre artists to record the music for a number of films and theatre productions.

He has cooperated with Giedrius Puskunigis and other film and theatre artists to record the music for a number of films and theatre productions. Kirilauskas is also a respected professor. Apart from teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, he has given master-classes in many music institutions, at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, UK), Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany), and the University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia). He has served as a member of the jury at the Bach Competition of Young Pianists in Vilnius and Plovdiv, as well as the International Balys Dvarionas Competition for Young Pianists in Vilnius.

Kirilauskas completed his studies at the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Arts in 1991, and went on to study at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He later studied at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where he earned an MA, and graduated with the highest possible marks. His teachers were Liucija Drąsutienė (from 1984 to 1994), and the legendary Karl-Heinz Kämmerling (from 1994 to 2000).

Kirilauskas is the winner of many national and international prizes. In 1991, he won the 1st prize at the International Maria Canals Competition of Young Pianists in Barcelona, and was awarded a diploma at the first International M.K. Čiurlionis Pianists’ Competition; he also won a diploma with the signature of Princess Diana at the Newport International Pianists’ Competition in London in 1994, and the Boesendorfer Prize in Vienna, in 1997. Kirilauskas won the premium of the Austrian Ministry of Culture in 2000, and received a Congratulatory Letter from President Valdas Adamkus in 2005.

He is also very familiar with jazz. He is the Grand Prix winner of the 1992 International Jazz Improvisation Competition-Festival in Vilnius.

Kirilauskas recorded the musical composition ‘Sideralis’ by Feliksas Bajoras. The recording was among the twelve winners in the international Call for Piano Recording competition, and was released by RMN Classical in 2018.

Since 2019 Daumantas Kirilauskas is a Bösendorfer-Artist.