Diana Čemerytė

Currently based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, composer Diana Čemerytė’s music is characterized by asceticism and a transparent, purified, and reduced musical language. During her studies, she developed an interest in music from earlier historical periods and in the tradition of Gregorian chant. “I do not like clutter, and I believe that unburdened music is more effective,” says Čemerytė, achieving musical expressiveness through carefully placed moments of silence and a poetics of cold beauty.

Čemerytė’s work has received numerous awards, including the composition prize “ad libitum” (2019/2020) and the Lithuanian Composers’ Union Prize for the best chamber music work of 2019. In 2021-2022, she was composer-in-residence for the concert series “Klangbilder” at the Lübeck Theatre. In 2025-2026, she received a commission to compose five works for the renowned Dresden boys’ choir Dresdner Kreuzchor. On January 12, 2025, her large-scale composition “Tell Me…” for symphonic wind orchestra and organ was performed at St. John’s Church in Vilnius. The work is dedicated to the Day of the Defenders of Freedom.

Čemerytė’s works have been presented at prestigious festivals such as the ISCM World New Music Days in Bucharest (2026), the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Kraków (2022), the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music (2006), the 69th International Rostrum of Composers (2023), the Thomas Mann Festival (2017, 2026), and the International Review of Composers in Belgrade (2019, 2021). Her music has been performed in Lithuania, Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy, Japan, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Author concerts have been held in Vilnius (2015), Frankfurt am Main (2019), as well as in Weimar and Gotha (2019).

Čemerytė’s creative output consists mainly of chamber and choral music, as well as two operas for children. In 2019, her first authorial CD “Mondgesänge für Blockflöte und Akkordeon” (Genuin Classics) was released. In 2023, a second album issued by the Lithuanian Music Information Centre, MEINE SEELE WARTET - Metamorphosen (MICL), reveals a profound dialogue between historical sonic tradition and contemporary expression.

"D. Čemerytė is an erudite composer with an excellent knowledge of Western European music history (musicology studies at Goethe University Frankfurt) and a masterful command of contemporary compositional techniques (composition class of Osvaldas Balakauskas, Lithuanian Academy of Music). She listens to the past without succumbing to its inertia, and avoids slipping into pastiche or parody. Her music is born in the form of interpretations and commentaries, as if in the margins, yet articulating her own voice - whose overtones can surprise even the most experienced listeners." (Kristupas Bubnelis)