Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Kaunas State Choir
Petras Bingelis

"The community, environment, emotions and socialising with people are very important to me. But what really matters is the other side of life, the things that remain with you after a busy working day. With no pretence, I believe that it is music, without which my life would be a mistake. Music is everything. It contains everything. And I have chosen it as the content and form for my life."

Petras Bingelis has been leading the Kaunas State Choir since its establishment in 1969. After graduating from the Lithuanian Academy of Music, he studied conducting with Rolf Reuter and Kurt Masur at the Leipzig Conservatoire in 1975/76.

Bingelis has conducted the Lithuanian National Symphony and the Lithuanian Chamber orchestras. Both orchestras have collaborated with the Kaunas State Choir performing many large-scale compositions, such as Bach's Mass in B minor and St Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Saint-Saëns' Le Déluge and Rossini's Tancredi. Bingelis has conducted also Verdi's La Traviata and Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Kaunas Musical Theatre and has collaborated with the Odessa Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

Possibly the conductor's most outstanding feature is his boundless energy. He is always prepared to take risks and move forward, even in the toughest moments. The choral art that he creates is expressive, bold and assertive rather than intimate.

Petras Bingelis is the artistic director of the Pažaislis Music Festival, the chief conductor of the Lithuanian Song Festival and the World Lithuanian Song Festival, and a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. In 1994, he was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize and the 4th Class Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

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