|
The contralto, Justina Vaitkutė, was born and grew up in Rome, Italy into a Lithuanian family of classical musicians. She began her musical education in piano at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia and Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics and Physics studies at Oxford Royale (2011); she also studied philosophy at the Sapienza Università di Roma (2014). Her education also includes Jazz studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston (2009), Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff (2014), and over a decade of ballet and modern dance experience. She completed her Master of Arts degree in opera singing with distinction at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz under Professor Elena Pankratova, where she also studied Arts Mangement (2025-2026). She was a member of the 2023 Accademia Rodolfo Celletti in Martina Franca (March-December 2023), under the artistic direction of Sebastian Schwarz and Fabio Luisi, and has participated in master-classes with Hedwig Fassbender, Andreas Scholl, Mariella Devia, and Vivica Genaux. In August 2025 she debuted the title role in Antonio Vivaldi's Il Giustino at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alte Musik.
Early highlights include her portrayal of Frau Reich in Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Erste Norn in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, and Angelo in Antonio Maria Bononcini’s La decollazione di Giovanni Battista at the Graz Opera. She also appeared in W.A. Mozart - Haas’s Requiem at the Grazer Musikverein, and in Klaus Lang’s Der verschwundene Hochzeiter at the Bayreuth Festispiele. Other stage credits include Prinz Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Dritte Dame, and Zweiter Knabe in W.A. Mozart Die Zauberflöte.
Justina Vaitkutė is the 2025 recipient of the Salvat Bach Grant in Barcelona and performs regularly as a soloist with Baroque ensembles across Europe. In 2024, she won the San Colombano Competition in Piacenza for the ‘Best Oratorio Performance of a German Aria’ and was finals in the Theater an der Wien Graduierte Competition. She made her debut at the Neue Oper Wien in Pascal Dusapin's Passion and performed as a soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Paulus at the Musikfest Stuttgart, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann broadcasted by ARD and SWR Kultur. That same year, she performed the role of Floßhilde in R. Wagner's Das Rheingold at the Schlossbergbühne Kasematten in Graz. She appeared as Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica in Graz under the baton of Gerrit Prießnitz (staged by Ingo Kerkhof) and debuted at the Festival della Valle d’Itria as Roccolina in Gassmann’s Gli Uccellatori. She also sang the role of Die Dichterin in Boesmans's Reigen in Graz and was soloist in George Frideric Handel's Messiah with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana, conducted by Gary Graden.
Justina Vaitkutė worked with the Bachakademie Stuttgart and Hans-Christoph Rademann, performed Luigi Nono’s Prometeo at the NODO Festival in Ostrava, and studied Baroque singing with Andreas Scholl at the Accademia Chigiana. In 2022, she performed at the Styriarte Festival as Disinganno in G.F. Handel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno and sang at the Festival delle grandezze e meraviglie di Modena in works by Bononcini and Stradella. |
