Born in Vilnius to a Lithuanian musical family, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla studied choral and orchestral conducting at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Graz, and followed this with further studies at the Bologna Conservatory, the Leipzig College of Music and finally at the Zurich College of Art. In 2009, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was accepted into the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council (DMR) and the following year she gave her opera debut, conducting ›La Traviata‹ in Osnabrück. This young conductor first attracted international attention in 2012 when she won the coveted ›Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award‹.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was engaged as Assistant Conductor to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2014/15 season and enjoyed overwhelming popularity with both the orchestra and audiences alike. As a result of this popularity she was soon promoted to Associate Conductor, and subsequently took over the position of Music Director of the Salzburg State Theatre for the 2015/16 season. She also received – and accepted – numerous invitations from international orchestras and opera houses in Bern, Heidelberg, Salzburg and Berlin. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has been Music Director at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra since the begininning of the 2016/17 season, where she follows in the footsteps of conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons.