Modestas Pitrėnas – artistic director and principal conductor of the LNSO

Short biography

Modestas Pitrėnas, principal conductor and artistic director of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), is one of the most prominent conductors in Lithuania today. His interpretations of symphonic music and opera are highly regarded not only in Lithuania but also internationally. The Dutch music magazine Music Emotion named the recording of Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera I Lituani (The Lithuanians), conducted by Pitrėnas (released in 2025 by the recording label Accentus Music), a must-have musical novelty, while the classical music magazine Pizzicato wrote that ‘Pitrėnas overcomes dramaturgical inconsistencies and sometimes sparse orchestration with a conducting style based on tension and melodic flourishes.’

A head of the LNSO since 2015, Pitrėnas has also been the principal conductor of the St. Gallen Opera Theatre and symphony orchestra (Switzerland), a position he has held since 2018. A graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and the prestigious Mozarteum University in Salzburg, he was conductor and artistic director of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2011, principal conductor of the Latvian National Opera (LNO) from 2009 to 2014, and made his debut at the Frankfurt Opera House in 2022.

The maestro has recorded more than 15 CDs of choral and symphonic music, enjoys regular invitations to conduct not only in Lithuania, but also at various opera houses abroad. Pitrėnas is an associate professor at the Conducting Department of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The recipient of the Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize 2012 was also decorated with other significant awards: for his contribution to Latvian musical culture, he was honoured with the Latvian Cross of Recognition, a state award. In 2015, a joint jury of the Baltic Assembly in Riga adjudged the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts to Pitrėnas. In 2019, he was decorated with the Officer’s Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.