Витаутас Юозапайтис

Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Figaro, Escamillo, Scarpia — the central Italian and Mozartian baritone roles have been Vytautas Juozapaitis's working repertoire for more than three decades, and around them sit dozens of others reaching into operetta and the musical. Born in Radviliškis in 1963, he graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music in 1989 from the class of Vladimiras Prudnikovas, then studied at the European Centre for Opera and Voice in Belgium in 1992–93 and afterwards with Marlena Malas in New York and Tom Krause in Finland. He has been a soloist of the Kaunas State Musical Theatre since 1989 and of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre since 1990. A diploma at the Pavarotti competition came in 1993 and the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts in 2003; he has three times been named his country's opera soloist of the year. He has taught at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre since 1996, latterly as professor. He was one of five soloists in the State Opera Rousse's concert at Solothurn on 30 June 2009, sharing the evening with Olga Savova, Vladimir Petrov, Noemi Nadelmann and Jana Bernathova.