Gintaras Januševičius facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gintaras Januševičius
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Gintaras Januševičius in 2014
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| Born | 16 January 1985 Moscow, Soviet Union
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| Citizenship | Lithuanian |
| Years active | 1999–present |
Gintaras Januševičius (born on January 16, 1985) is a talented Lithuanian pianist. He is also a music teacher, event organizer, radio host, and helps good causes. People know him for his special way of telling stories through music and his unique performances of pieces by composers like Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. He also plays many pieces by Lithuanian composers, some of which were written just for him or performed by him for the first time.
Contents
About Gintaras Januševičius
His Early Life and Learning
Gintaras Januševičius was born in Moscow. His father, Algirdas Januševičius, was a trumpeter from Lithuania, and his mother, Nailia Galiamova, was a composer. In 1987, his family moved to Klaipėda, a city in Lithuania. Gintaras started learning music when he was just 4 years old at the Eduardas Balsys School of Arts.
In 1993, his family moved to Vilnius, the capital city, because his father became the main trumpeter for the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. Gintaras then joined the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art. He had his first piano lessons with Valentina Potejenko. Later, he learned from Valė Kulikauskienė and Jurgis Bialobžeskis.
After finishing school in 2003, Gintaras studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Drama. In 2004, he moved to Hanover, Germany, to study with the famous professor Vladimir Krainev. After Krainev passed away in 2011, Gintaras continued his piano studies with professor Bernd Goetzke at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He also took lessons from many other well-known pianists, including Lazar Berman.
Amazing Performances
Gintaras Januševičius first played with an orchestra when he was 15. He performed a piece by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. In the same month, he played a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.
He became very well-known in May 2004 after playing in the semi-finals of the Montreal International Musical Competition. Many famous pianists praised his performance of Rachmaninoff's Études-Tableaux. One critic, Christophe Huss, wrote that Gintaras's playing was like "an apparition from another place" and that he played with the "simplicity of the master."
So far, Gintaras has performed with more than 30 orchestras. These include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. He has played in famous concert halls around the world, such as the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid. He has also given solo concerts in cities like New York City, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Paris.
Gintaras has been part of many important music festivals, including The International Chopin Piano Festival. He was the first to perform certain piano concertos in Lithuania, like those by Aram Khachaturian and Leroy Anderson.
Since 2013, Gintaras has focused on "narrative" piano concerts. This means he combines music with storytelling and even theater elements. Some of his popular shows include "Dreamcatcher" (2014), "Complete Waltzes by Chopin" (2015), and "The New Colossus" (2019). These shows have been loved by audiences and critics in places like New York and Berlin.
What Music He Plays
Gintaras Januševičius is an expert on Rachmaninoff and has played all of his solo piano works. He also often performs:
- Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky
- Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118 by Brahms
- Dante Sonata by Liszt
- "Waldstein" and "Moonlight" sonatas by Beethoven
- Preludes, Op.34 by Shostakovich
- All the Scherzi, Ballades, and Waltzes by Chopin
- His own version of Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin
He has played piano concertos by many composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Ravel. Gintaras also enjoys working with modern composers like Jörg Widmann and Victoria Poleva, performing their new music.
His Recordings
You won't find Gintaras Januševičius's solo performances on regular audio CDs. He believes that his performances are special because of his storytelling and timing, and they lose something without that. However, you can find many live performances on his website and YouTube channel.
He has recorded one CD called "Window to Lithuania" with violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė and cellist Gleb Pyšniak. This CD features rare piano trio pieces by Lithuanian composers like Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Balys Dvarionas. His performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is also on a double CD from 2007.
Teaching Music
Since 2009, Gintaras Januševičius has taught special piano classes, called master classes, in countries like Japan, China, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.
Since 2017, he has been the artistic director and piano professor at the "Feuerwerk" piano academy in Einbeck and the "Klaipėda Piano Masters" summer festival in Klaipėda. In 2020, he joined the teaching staff at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He also teaches very talented students in his private piano studio in Hanover.
His Family Life
Gintaras Januševičius lives in Hanover with his wife, Brigita. They got married in August 2015. Their first son, Vincent, was born in January 2021, and their daughter, Gabriele, was born in December 2022.
Since September 2021, Gintaras has also been a co-host for a radio show called "Bazinis Akordas" on LRT Klasika, the classical music channel of the Lithuanian National Radio and Television.
See also
In Spanish: Gintaras Januševičius para niños
