So we’re over half-way through this season’s concerts and our next offering is a piano recital by Ignas Maknickas on Friday 6 June, reports Ellen Beaumont.
Remember to put the date in your diaries and we hope to see you there.
As always, children are welcome to attend free of charge and they will have the opportunity to meet Ignas.
In July 2021, Ignas Maknickas received The Queen’s Award for Excellence, as the highest-scoring graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.
In 2023, he became the winner of Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions and had his debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall.
In 2024, Ignas had his debut at the BBC Radio 3 programme “In Tune” with Sean Rafferty and has taken First Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Keyboard Competition (ROSL).
He won first prize at the XIX Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Youth in Szafarnia, first prize at the XX Piano Competition “Young Virtuoso” in Zagreb, third prize at the Aarhus Piano Competition and in 2021 was the semi-finalist of the Vendome Prize.
2024-25 highlights include solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Brighton Dome, King’s Lynn, Fidelio Cafe and others.
Ignas has appeared with the Aarhus Symphony, Alicante Philharmonic, Dartington Festival Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra.
Born in California in 1998, Ignas was raised in Lithuania.
In 2017, graduating from the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius, he was honoured by the President of Lithuania, H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė.
With his sister and three brothers, the talented Maknickas Family Ensemble has represented Lithuania on national television and at state occasions.
Ignas completed his Bachelor and Master of Arts programmes at the Royal Academy of Music on full scholarship under Professor Joanna MacGregor.
In September 2023 he commenced the Advanced Diploma Programme with Professor MacGregor, also on full scholarship.
He is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar, a recipient of the ABRSM Scholarship Award, the Imogen Cooper Music Trust Scholarship, Munster Trust Mark James Award, Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation Award, Tillett Trust and Colin Keer Trust Award and Hattori Foundation Award.
He is an Artist of the Munster Trust Recital Scheme.
Ignas has attended masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Dame Imogen Cooper, Christopher Elton, Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Marios Papadopoulos, Menahem Pressler, Geoffrey Simon, Tamás Ungár, Arie Vardi and Ilana Vered.
As a soloist he has appeared at the Steinway Hall in London, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Charlottenborg Festival Hall in Copenhagen, Ed Landreth Hall in Fort Worth, Lithuanian National Philharmonic in Vilnius and Kinross House in Scotland.
A reminder that the last concert of the 2025 season will be held on Friday 5 September 2025 with the Lumas Winds (wind quintet).
Full details of all the programmes and artists are on our BAMS website: https://bvemv.orpheusweb.co.uk/BAMSWeb/bams.html.
Ellen Beaumont
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
