Vilmantas Kaliunas

Vilmantas Kaliunas was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. He received his first piano lesson from his father at the age of four before he started playing the oboe at the age of eleven. After studying conducting and oboe in Vilnius, he came to Germany in 1993 and continued his oboe studies with Prof. Armin Aussem at the Conservatory of Music Saarbrücken. Since 1998, Kaliunas is principal oboe in the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. During his time in Saarbrücken, he worked with conductors like Paavo Järvi, Andrey Boreyko, Christian Thielemann and Heinz Holliger. Conducting Masterclasses with Prof. Karl- Heinz Bloemeke, Prof. Lutz Köhler or Prof. Jorma Panula and regular assistance for Maestro Karl Marek Chichon were initial impulses for Kaliunas to focus on his caree