Kasparas Mikužis
Kasparas Mikužis, born in 2001, was introduced to the piano at the age of 6 when he began studying with Liudmila Kašėtienė at the Šilutė Arts School. Afterwards, he studied at the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Arts and is now furthering his musical education at the Purcell School with Justas Dvarionas.
With a growing passion for music and great talent, at the age of 9, he was recognised by the ‘SOS Talents’ founder Michel Sogny who decided to support him in his musical studies. It was at this age that Kasparas began performing in many countries across Europe. His teacher Justas Dvarionas says: ‘his work has always been marked by depth of understanding, sensitivity, and seriousness. Kasparas’s intelligence, musical knowledge, concentration and personal integrity is portrayed through his piano playing.’
Kasparas’ unique and prodigious piano playing was appreciated by the jury in 2013 when he won 1 st prize in the international competition “Young musician Tallinn” in Estonia, where, in the finals, he played with Tallinn’s chamber orchestra. In 2015 Kasparas won 1 st prize in the piano academy and competition “Pianale” in Fulda, Germany. He was awarded a concert in Fuldaand the opportunity to record this CD with “KNS Classical”. In 2016, Kasparas won 1 st prize in the international V. Krainev competition in Kharkov, Ukraine and Grand Prix in the 10 th international B. Dvarionas competition for young pianists and violinists in Vilnius, Lithuania. Kasparas has also participated in various masterclasses with great pianists, including Grigory Gruzman, William Fong, Pavel Nersessian, Mūza Rubackytė, Uta Weyand and others.
Since 2011, Kasparas has performed in the yearly Christmas concert held on the Champs Elysées in Paris. In 2012 he was given the opportunity to appear in a concert in Georgia, which was televised by Mezzo Tv and watched by both the Lithuanian and Georgian Presidents. He has also performed in the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva on four occasions and at the EMMA World Summit of Nobel Prize Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland. In 2015 and 2017 he performed in the Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam, Holland. Kasparas has also appeared in concert halls in Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Portugal, Serbia and in many towns of Lithuania.
Besides his solo studying, Kasparas also plays duets with Milda Daunoraitė. Together they have been successful and won first prize twice in the international competition ‘Playing in Duets’ in Kaunas, Lithuania. They have also won the competition ‘Brother and Sister’ in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2017 the Mstislav Rostropovich's charity & support foundation ‘Pagalba Lietuvos Vaikams’ awarded Kasparas with their support and later in the year he Kasparas Mikužis received a letter of gratitude from the president of Lithuania for his role in representing Lithuania on international stage.
“Concert was followed by the 14-year-old Kasparas Mikužis from Lithuania, who played piano pieces by six different composers. He is the youthful talent who dares to face great challenges in the knowledge of his abilities. In the études of Chopin (op.25 / 1), Liszt (Paganini E major) and Rachmaninoff (op.33), he
always explored, on the basis of his eminent technique, sensitive sonic depth dimensions, perhaps even more so in the "Impromptu" of his compatriot Balys Dvarionas.”
FuldaerZeitung.de
