The works by Justė Janulytė (born in Vilnius), mostly written for dense monochromatic ensembles (only strings, winds or voices), explore musical time/space perception through large-scale multilayered textures and extremely gradual metamorphoses. While balancing between the aesthetics of minimalism, spectralism and acoustic electronica, Justė Janulytė composes sonic metaphors of optic ideas (Here at the Quiet Limit for male choir and string orchestra, The Colour of Water for saxophone(s) solo and orchestra, Was there a Swan? for symphony orchestra) and researches the visual nature of musical phenomena in the works where sound and image are fused together (Breathing Music for string quartet, electronics and kinetic sculptures, Sandglasses for 4 cellos, electronics and video scenography).
In 2009, Janulytė won the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (in the category of composers under 30). In 2011, the composer was awarded the Young Artist’s Prize by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and in 2017 the Lithuanian National Arts and Culture Prize, the highest artistic distinction in Lithuania. In 2019, she won the ‘Musica femina München’ competition.
She has collaborated with quite a few of the world’s leading ensembles and soloists including Konzerthausorchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Teatro La Fenice Symphony, BBC Symphony and National Orchestra of Wales, Helsinki Philharmonic, Polish National Philharmonic, Estonian National Symphony, Brno Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Sinfonietta Riga, Ensemble Modern, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London sinfonietta, Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber and Estonian National Male Choir, SWR Vokalensemble, WDR Rundfunkchor, Latvian Radio Choir, BBC Singers, Quasar, Xasax and Flotilla saxophone quartets, saxophonist Marcus Weiss, cellist Sèverine Ballon, trumpeter Marco Blaauw, flautist Manuel Zurria, harpsichordist Goska Isphording, conductors Olari Elts, Eliahu Inbal, Enno Poppe, Peter Rundel, Normunds Šnė and Jörg Widmann, among others. Her music has been performed across Europe, the Americas, Australia and Japan, and has featured in such contexts as Sydney Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Venice Biennale, RomaEuropa, Milano Musica, ManiFeste (Paris), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Musica Nova Helsinki, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, SonicA (Glasgow), Maerzmusik (Berlin), Musik der Zeit (WDR Cologne), Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, musikprotokoll Graz, Biennale Némo (Gaîté lyrique, Paris), Musica festival (Strasbourg), Musicadhoy (Madrid) and Moravian Autumn (Brno), to name a few.
In 2020, Justė Janulytė made her cinematic debut collaborating with Latvian director Viesturs Kairišs on the full length feature City on the River continuing with January, which won the Tribeca (NY) film festival as the best international narrative feature and also won at Roma Film Fest, among others. She is also engaged in teaching composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and numerous masterclasses, including Madona/Latvia (2018), SYNTHETIS in Radziejowice/Poland together with Chaya Czernowin, Toshio Hosokawa, Zygmunt Krauze (2019), with Mark Andre, Ivan Fedele, Zygmunt Krauze (2020), International Young Composers Academy in Lugano/Switzerland with Oscar Bianchi and Mauro Lanza (2021).
Photo: D. Matvejev