Pavel Giunter is the leading percussionist in Lithuania. He is a member of the Lithuanian Association of Percussionists. He is also a founder and leader of the ensemble Giunter Percussio” – the first and the only one of its kind in this field in Lithuania. However, he also plays as a soloist-percussionist, soloist-timpanist, studio musician, etc. He performs a wide range of music from classical to modern, world and jazz music. Pavel Giunter is widely recognized as a percussion expert. He has given quite a number of first performances of modern works, several of which were dedicated to him.
Pavel Giunter began his career a professional musician at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In October 1989 immediately after the founding of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra he joined as first percussionist (concert-master) and has kept this position until present. With this orchestra he has toured many European and several Asian countries. He has also played with such prominent conductors as Gintaras Rinkevicius, Yurij Simonov, L. Grin, Denis Russel Davies, Dmitrij Alexeev, J. Kakhidze, Vladimir Ziva, M. Armiliato, M Sidlin, Saulius Sondeckis among others.
In recent years, he increased his appearances as a soloist. He participates in modern music festivals at home and abroad. He has participated in special projects with the Lithuanian quartet, the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian State and Lithuanian National Symphony orchestras, etc. As soloist he had performed at the International New Music Festival in Riga, the Contemporary music festival “Gaida” in Vilnius, international percussion festivals in Lodze (Poland), Minsk (Belarus), Helsinki (Finland), Berlin (Germany, Novy Sad (Serbia). He constantly performs with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and as a soloist with pianist Sergey Okrusko. Recently he gave a highly successful performance at the Royal Concert Hall in London (Great Britain) that was broadcast over BBC Radio as listeners’ choice. One of the latest projects Pavel Giunter organized and took part in was Percussion Fiesta with such percussion stars as Nebojsa Zivkovic (Germany), Linda Maxey (USA), Michael Udow (USA) and Frederic Macarez (France).
In 1996 and 1998 Pavel Giunter received the Lithuanian State young performer grant.
Discography:
Spirits Rising (Zet Records, 2004)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
