Bellagio Residency: October 2023
Project: “Eco-opera”
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is a critically-acclaimed composer who received the 2022 Lithuanian National Prize in Arts and Culture and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. Žibuoklė came to Bellagio in October 2023 to work her new eco-opera about the extinction of species, preservation of the natural world, analogies of the biological world with the human body, and the suffering of animals in war and natural disasters. Her work has received critical acclaim with reviews in the New York Times, Gramophone Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, and Limelight Magazine. Her 2019 solo CD, In Search of Lost Beauty, received two gold medals at the Global Music Awards for Best Composer and Best Album.