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Gunta Gelgote · Nerijus Masevicius · Kaunas State Choir · Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra · Robertas Šervenikas
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Nerijus Masevicius
Bass-baritone Nerijus Masevicius, one of the most famous performers of early and contemporary music of Lithuania. His musical career commenced in Kaunas where he studied cello at the Juozas Naujalis Music Gymnasium. Later he took on choral conducting at the Juozas Gruodis Conservatory. He also obtained diplomas of vocal performance and conducting from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Biography
From the Ondine artist archive. Appointments and season references reflect the original biography.
Masevicius is an active concert performer, participating in various events both in Lithuania and abroad. Masevicius has performed with a number of orchestras, including Lithuanian and St. Christopher’s Chamber Orchestras, Lithuanian National and State Symphony Orchestras, Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Baltic Baroque Orchestra as well as different ensembles, such as Lithuania’s Musica Humana, Banchetto musicale, Canto Fiorito, Morgaine, Estonia’s Musica silentii, France’s Antiphona and Le Poème Harmonique, Flori Pari (Poland), Alta Capella (Russia), Le Tendre Amour (Spain), Het kolektyv (Belgium).
He has participated in master classes led by early music educators and performers – Andrew Lawrence-King (Great Britain), Vincent Dumestre (France), Jean-François Novelli (France), Marc Mauillon (France), Rolandas Muleika (France), Wim Becu (Belgium), Jane Gingell (Great Britain), Jan Van Elsacker (Belgium), Roberto Balconi (Italy), Charles Daniels (Great Britain) and others.
Baroque operas, oratorios, and cantatas are equally important in his repertoire – Monteverdi’s Ballo delle Ingrate, Orpheus, Vespers, Caccini’s Euridice, Pagliardi’s Caligula, Vitale’s Il ratto di Helena, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Bach’s Johannes-Passion, Matthäus Passion, B minor Mass, Schütz’s Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, among others, as well as Lithuanian premieres or premieres abroad – Šerkšnyte’s Songs of Sunset and Dawn, Martinaitis’s Summa (Mass of Animals), Augustina’s Journey of the Magi, Flood by Tarasov and Mann, opera Alfa by Navickas, Via Crucis by Lukaszewski, Mitternachtsstück by Kagel, among others.
Masevicius’ musical biography includes different festivals in Lithuania and abroad, such as the Thomas Mann Festival, the Vilnius Festival, Banchetto Musicale, Pax et Bonum, Jauna Muzika, Gaida, Kultur Festival (Turkey), Millennium Pace (Spain), Bach Festival, Vocal Fantasy (Israel), Baltic Sea Festival (Sweden), Zalataja Maska, Renaisance (Russia), Passages, Theatre en May (France), Trigonale (Austria) and more. Together with other musicians, he has recorded 22 albums, including Cantate Domino which contains music from the 17th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania, W. A. Mozart’s Vespere solennes de confessore, Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez, and Pawel Lukaszewski’s Via Crucis.
Together with other musicians, his 22 albums include: Verdi’s Traviata (2003), Mozart’s Vespere solennes de confessore (2003), Cantate Domino: 17th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania (2005), Baranauskas: Kalbjimas (2007), Ramirez’s Misa Criolla (2008), Lukaszewski’s Via Crucis (2011, Poland), Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir (2011), Deus Deus meus: Giovanni Battista Cocciola (XVII a. LDK muzika) (2015), Schütz’s Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (2019, Moscow), Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla: Going for the Impossible – A Portrait (2019, Deutsche Grammophon), Evening song / Giesm vakarin (2020, Ayros), Lietuvi kompozitoriai: Between Music and Ritual (2021, LMIC), Martinaitis: Pradžios ir pabaigos knyga (2022, LMIC), Opera Alfa (2022, Operomanija), From Rome to Vilnius (2024, Brilliant Classics).
In 2019, together with the creative group he received in the opera category the Golden Cross of the Stage for the opera Alfa.