New York-based Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, winner of the Lithuanian National Prize in Arts and Culture and the Guggenheim Fellowship, writes orchestral and chamber music with intricately woven layers of sound. Her music has been lauded as “profoundly moving” with “complex structures of perception and rich textures of experience”. CDs of her music have received wide critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. Her orchestral CD Saudade and choral album ALETHEIA were named NPR’s Top 10 Classical Albums.
While at MacDowell she has worked on an orchestral piece about the city of Vilnius, Lithuania commissioned by European Capital of Culture; completed the piece American Hodgepodge to be performed at Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, CA; a project titled 1 + 1 = 0 for two cellos, piano, electronics and audio cubes, developed a series called Still Lifes, composed her piece Thousand Doors to the World, worked on a piece for cello and chamber orchestra Sielunmaisema, and recorded a series of piano improvisations.
During her 2026 residency, Martinaitytė worked on the completion stages of the opera UPSIDE DOWN, a creative collaboration with late theater director Robert Willson on the subject of migration. The world premiere of the opera is scheduled for September 2026 at the Lithuanian National Opera Theater in Vilnius.
