Many of us can still remember the masterpieces of vocal art, subtly interpreted by Virgilijus Noreika, the owner of a beautiful voice. This year, one of Lithuania’s most famous tenors would have celebrated his 90th birthday.
Born in Šiauliai, the future singer and his parents later moved to Vilnius. “I was offered to blow the trumpet to ventilate my lungs. I had been playing it successfully for a year and a half in brass bands, but I really wanted to sing. I was lucky… I was transferred to the choral singing department.” At the Conservatoire, he studied singing for two years in the class of Antanas Karosas, and from the third year onwards with the famous tenor Kipras Petrauskas. As a fourth year student, he was accepted as a soloist at the Opera and Ballet Theatre. He was the first post-war Lithuanian soloist to undertake a traineeship at La Scala Theatre in Milan. For more than 40 years, Noreika sang the main tenor roles in productions of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, and was its director and artistic director. He has been applauded by the audiences of the Grand Opera in Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Chicago Lithuanian Opera, Bucharest, Belgrade, Warsaw, Prague and other solid opera houses. V. Noreika is also known as a performer of chamber and orchestral music. He has given more than 800 solo concerts in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. The foreign press has written. Noreika is a tenor with excellent vocal qualities and his performance is fiery and dramatic, giving great artistic pleasure. He can be described as one of the best contemporary tenors” (Keskisuomalainen, Finland).

During the concert dedicated to the anniversary of the Maestro, the Professor, or, as the students themselves used to call him, the Chef, the singers who had the good fortune to be students of Noreika will take to the stage. They will be joined by a guest from Croatia, soprano Darija Auguštan, winner of the 3rd International Virgilijus Noreika Singers Competition, Noreika’s spouse Loreta Bartusevičiūtė-Noreikienė, and the concert will be hosted by the musicologist Viktoras Gerulaitis, who will share his memories of the legendary Lithuanian tenor.