Rasa Vitkauskaite

Rasa Vitkauskaite has won top prizes at numerous prestigious international piano competitions including First Prizes at the Rubinstein Piano Competition (Paris), Les Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes Pianistes (Belgium), the competition in Taurisano (Italy), and the Mendelssohn Cup (Italy). In 2007, Rasa won a Kathryn Wasserman Davis grant that supported her tour promoting peace in Israel. In her native country of Lithuania, Ms. Vitkauskaite has garnered the top prize at six national competitions.

Ms. Vitkauskaite studied at the National M. K. Ciurlionis School of Arts in Vilnius, Lithuania, from which she graduated with honors. She then won a scholarship to study at the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy. She also studied chamber music with members of the Trio di Trieste at the International Chamber Music School. Upon graduating, she was awarded the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma with the highest marks.

Subsequently, she has studied at The Boston Conservatory with Michael Lewin, where she won the H. Wilfred Churchill piano scholarship competition both in 2007 and 2008. She is currently completing her Masters Degree.

Ms. Vitkauskaite has performed as soloist with the Kaunas, Latvian, Kaliningrad Philharmonic Orchestras and most recently with I Solisti di Perugia and the Boston Conservatory Orchestra. She has played in many festivals around the world including ones in Kaunas (Lithuania), Moscow (Russia), Pyrénées (France), and the Music Fest Perugia (Italy), and she has given concerts in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, United Kingdom and the United States.

Ms. Vitkauskaite is also very active as a chamber musician. She performs regularly with clarinetist Jonathan Cohler all over the world. This year the duo plays concerts in Boston, Portugal, China, Japan, Venezuela and live on WGBH Radio. Last season marked the release of her debut CD with Mr. Cohler on Rhapsodie Française (Ongaku 024-121). The duo has recently recorded a new CD titled Romanza (Ongaku 024-123), which will be released in the fall, featuring works by Schumann, Prokofiev and Guastavino. Ms. Vitkauskaite is also the pianist of the Boston Conservatory Honors Trio with violinist Yumi Okada and cellist Ignacy Grzelazka.