7-9.08.2014
Agata Darashkaite
Agata was born in Poznan (Poland) in 1988 and at the age of five moved to Lithuania where she started studying at the National M.K. Ciurlionis School of Arts. In 1998 Agata was chosen to perform for Lord Menuhin at a ceremony in which he was presented with the Doctorate Honoris Cause from the Lithuanian Academy of Music. She is a laureate of ten national and international young musician competitions and has performed with all the major Lithuanian orchestras, including the State Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra.
At the age of 14 Agata moved to England to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Since then she has been performing solo and chamber music regularly across the UK (Fairfield Halls, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall). In 2009 she had the privilege to perform solo (with Vladimir Jurowski conducting) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the London Phillharmonic Orchestra’s “Between two worlds: Alfred Schnittke” festival. In 2012 Agata won the Royal College of Music concerto competition and performed Berg’s violin concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra with Edward Gardner conducting.
Agata is a keen chamber musician and she takes an active interest in historical performance. This has led her to become a founding member of a string quartet with which Agata has been performing for over a year now, exploring the classical and early romantic repertoire on period instruments.
In summer 2013 Agata won a place in KREMERata Baltica, a chamber orchestra of musicians from the Baltic states led by Gidon Kremer with whom she toured Europe, Russia and North America.
In July 2012 she completed her bachelor's degree at the Royal College of Music with 1st class Honours. Agata is currently a postgraduate student on the RCM Masters in Performance programme, supported by the Leverhulme trust.
