The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France has named Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as its Principal Guest Conductor from September 2026. Her tenure will coincide with Jaap van Zweden’s first season as Music Director.
Gražinytė-Tyla made her debut with the orchestra in 2021, conducting Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony no.3, a composer whose music has featured prominently in her career.
She built a relationship with the orchestra through championing of the work of her compatriots, such as Raminta Šerkšnytė Mikalojus and Konstantinas Čiurlionis, and featuring the work of her father, the renowned Lithuanian choral conductor Romualdas Gražinis.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla rose to international attention in 2012 as the winner of the Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. She was a Dudamel Fellow and Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, before being appointed Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2016, the first woman to hold that position.
In 2022, she stepped back from holding Music Director positions, citing family reasons and Brexit as the chief difficulties in maintaining her busy schedule, instead taking the position of Principal Guest Conductor and then Associate Artist of the CBSO. She has since guest-conducted several orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic.
