Conductors Selected for LA Phil's 2012/13 Dudamel Fellowship Program

During the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2012/13 season, four conductors will participate in the Dudamel Fellowship Program - Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Christopher Lees, Dietrich Paredes and Rafael Payare. Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, created the Dudamel Fellowship Program in 2009 to provide a unique opportunity for promising young conductors from around the world to develop their craft and enrich their musical experience through personal mentorship and participation in the LA Phil's orchestral, education and community programs.

"Now in its 4th year, this program is a perfect fit with the goals of the Los Angeles Philharmonic - it's about cultivating the next generation, it's about excellence, and providing opportunity," says Dudamel. "The hands-on learning which these young conductors receive during the season is unlike any other training program in the world. I'm proud of my orchestra for supporting this new class of young musicians."

The fellows will work alongside Dudamel and musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and will also work with students in key LA Phil education programs. The program for each of the fellows will run separately for approximately 4-6 weeks each. The fellows will hone their skills through observation and application, such as conducting Los Angeles Philharmonic youth concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, participating as a cover conductor, and serving as mentors themselves through participation in LA Phil education programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).

For the first time, the Dudamel Fellows will work with The Colburn School's Academy Virtuosi, an ensemble comprising Academy students and featuring Academy student soloists. The Academy is the school's comprehensive and vigorous pre-college music program which enters its third year this fall. Led by Dudamel Fellows, the ensemble launches its inaugural season with two concerts (November 14, 2012 and April 21, 2013) exploring exciting repertoire for chamber orchestra and large chamber ensembles.

The 2012/13 participating fellows are:
Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla
January 18 – February 24, 2013
Vilnius, Lithuania

To Conduct:
· Symphonies For Youth, The Composer is Dead, Jan. 26 & Feb. 2, 2013 at 11 a.m.
· Symphonies For Schools, Firebird, Feb. 6 – 8, 2013

Grazinyte-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum – Deutscher Dirigentenforum in April 2009 and has since benefitted from their conducting program and support. Starting with the 2011/2012 season, she became 2nd Kapellmeister of the Theater Heidelberg for two consecutive seasons, which enabled her to conduct many opera productions and symphonic concerts. In April 2012, Grazinyte-Tyla won the prestigious "Nestle and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award" selected from 91 applicants by a jury chaired by Maestro Ingo Metzmacher, giving her the opportunity to conduct the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in August 2012.

Praised as a dynamic, profound and extremely talented young conductor, Grazinyte-Tyla was one of the revelations of the 2009 Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar in Bonn, Germany on "the Art of Conducting Beethoven." As a result she was invited back to Bonn in December 2009 by the Beethoven Orchester and its music director Stefan Blunier to participate in the "Beethoven Night." In addition, Maestro Kurt Masur invited her to share the podium with him and two other conductors for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in December 2010. Grazinyte-Tyla conducted the second movement of the symphony.

Highlights of Grazinyte-Tyla's career include several productions at the Theater Heidelberg such as Aida and Carmen, a contemporary opera, Las Cartas de Frida by the renowned Mexican composer Marcela Rodriguez; La Traviata in Osnabrück; concerts with the MDR Orchestra Leipzig with Stravinsky's "Firebird," with the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, with the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra as well as a collaboration with the Camerata Salzburg and the Bergische Symphoniker, Remscheid, Germany.

A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, Grazinyte-Tyla was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig in 2008, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in choral and orchestral conducting from the University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. From 2007 until 2008 she furthered her studies at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. She has participated in numerous master classes and conducting workshops and worked with many established conductors and professors such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Collin Metters and Kurt Masur.