Award-winning Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė has received high praise for her “knockout technique” (The Times) and “thunderously powerful voice” (Daily Telegraph). Awarded Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards, and a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden — where among other things she performed at the Olympic Committee's Opening Ceremony for the London Olympic Games alongside Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel and Plácido Domingo — Justina is considered one of the foremost rising stars on the opera scene. An acclaimed Carmen, her hugely-praised performance with English National Opera was screened live into cinemas. Her remarkable range now stretches from French Opera — including the first-ever performances of Massanet’s Therese in Scotland and Lithuania — to Mahler to the great Verdi mezzo roles, which she now sings around the world.
In 2025, her debut solo recording was released on Ondine Records, Bizet’s “20 Songs” — the first time a single singer had recorded the complete cycle, a remarkable display of virtuosity and versatility (“A big, exciting voice…capable of encompassing fierce emotional and dramatic extremes” Gramophone). Other recordings have included Raminta Serksnyte’s Songs of Sunset and Dawn for Deutsche Grammophon, and volumes of songs by Rachmaninoff and Medtner for Delphian — the Rachmaninoff was Gramophone Award-nominated.
She has collaborated with conductors including Sir Antonio Pappano, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tugan Sokhiev, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Ludovic Morlot, Susanna Malkki, Evelino Pidò, Kazushi Ono, Robert Trevino, Daniele Rustioni, Carlo Rizzi, Xian Zhang, Tarmo Peltokoski, Sesto Quatrini, Giacomo Sagripanti, Markus Poschner, Roberto Fores Veses and Edward Gardner.
She has appeared at L’Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, the Bolshoi Opera, Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Israeli Opera, Latvian National Opera, Korean National Opera and Lithuanian National Opera. Concert engagements have brought her to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms, the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra della Svizzeria Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Simón Bolívar Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Danish Philharmonic, Basque National Orchestra, Extremadura Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Municipal Rio De Janeiro, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Justina’s opera repertoire embraces Verdi’s Eboli, Azucena, Maddalena, Meg Page and Preziosilla, Puccini’s Suzuki and Tigrana (Edgar), Donizetti’s Sara (Roberto Devereux) and Bellini’s Romeo; Massanet’s Therese, Dulcinee (Don Quichotte) and Kaled (Le roi de Lahore), Saint-Saens’s Dalila, Bizet’s Carmen and Berlioz’s Marguerite; Humperdink’s Hansel. On the concert stage, she sings all the great mezzo-soprano repertoire, from Mahler symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde to Berlioz’s Les nuits d’ete and Cleopatre, Ravel’s Sheherezade, and Verdi’s Requiem. But she also devotes time to less frequently-heard works, such as Respighi’s Il Tramonto, Boulanger’s Psalm 130 and Britten’s Phaedra. She also champions new music by Lithuanian composers, such as Raminta Serksnyte and Zibuokle Martinaityte.
A keen student of the craft of voice production, she is regularly invited to give masterclasses, most recently at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music And Drama, Lithuanian National Opera And Ballet Theatre, and Conservatorio Musica Verdi Milano.
Upcoming highlights include two further major recordings for Ondine (to be announced), debuts with the Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini and National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, and a role debut, Abuela in Falla’s opera La Vida Breve.
Justina studied at Lithuania’s Academy of Music and Theatre, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio in London and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.