"The dislocations, rapid acceleration and sudden slowing and the disparate perspectives reconciled in Martinaitytė's music embody complex structures of perception and rich textures of experience." The Wire, May 2018
Described by WQXR as a “textural magician”, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is a New York-based Lithuanian composer whose works explore the tensions and longings of identity and place. She creates sonic environments where musical gestures emerge and disappear within transparencies and densities of sound layers. It’s music that slides on the very blades of emotions.
In 2019 Martinaitytė’s solo CD In Search of Lost Beauty... released on Starkland was awarded 2 gold medals at the "Global Music Awards". Her orchestral piece A Thousand Doors To The World was commissioned by the Lithuanian Radio to celebrate Vilnius being named the Culture Capital of Europe in 2009. The premiere was broadcast by Euroradio to an audience of 4 million.
Her US commissions include the MATA, Look+Listen, VOLTI and Other Minds festivals as well as the Barlow Endowment. Žibuoklė has received residency fellowships from the MacDowell, the Aaron Copland house, the Millay Colony, Willapa Bay, Wildacres, The Blue Mountain, Harvestworks, Djerassi and the Cité des Arts (Paris).
Portrait by Lina Aiduke
