Rusnė Tušlaitė, LRAM, BMus
Singing
Rusne Tuslaite is a Lithuanian Soprano praised for her ‘effortless vocals and understated stage presence’ (Ham&High). She is the Royal Academy of Music Alumna and the Royal Opera House Emerging Artist for their Youth Council Steering Group 2021.
She made her Lithuanian National Opera debut at the age of seventeen as a winner of the television song contest ‘Dainu dainele 2016.’. Her recent operatic engagements include the roles of Rosalinde in Strauss's 'Die Fledermaus' (St Paul's Opera), Cretan woman in Mozart's 'Idomeneo' (Brunswick Vocal Arts), Fiordiligi (cover) in Mozart's 'Così fan tutte' (The Grange Festival), Chief hen and Woodpecker in Janáček’s ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ (Hampstead Garden Opera), Lidochka in Shostakovich’s ‘Cheryomushki’ (Welsh National Youth Opera), Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro' (Hampstead Garden Opera) and Tiresias in King’s world premiere of ‘Cantata Superba’ (Audentia Ensemble). Rusne has previously worked at the Glyndebourne festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Proms, the Clonter Opera Theatre, the Random Opera Company, and with the London City Orchestra covering 'Vier letzte lieder' by Strauss for soprano Nadine Benjamin MBE. She already performed in many prestigious venues such as the Wales Millennium Centre, the Grand Theatre Amiens, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Usher Hall, the King George Hall and the Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle.
Rusne is also an experienced Oratorio singer. Her solo engagements include Fauré's 'Requiem' and Franck's 'Les Sept Paroles du Christ en Croix' with the Malmesbury Singers, Saint-Saëns's 'Messe de Requiem' with the Athenaeum Singers and Handel's 'Dixit Dominus' with the RAM Bach Consort. She is a member of the prestigious Philharmonia Chorus performing all over the UK and France. Her repertoire includes Schubert's Mass in A-flat Major, Rachmaninov's 'The Bells', Verdi's 'Requiem', Dvořák's 'Stabat Mater', Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Bach's chorale op.8 'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland', Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2, 3 and 8 as well as Schoenberg’s ‘Gurrelieder’. Rusne has sung alongside the British Sinfonietta, the Sixteen Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Orchestre National de Lille under the baton of Michael England, Gary Matthewman, Paul Daniel, Harry Christophers, Daniel Hyde, Vasily Petrenko, Eduardo Strausser, Robin Ticciati, Alice Farnham, Lada Valesova, Sir Donald Runnicles, Sian Edwards, Maxim Emelyanychev, Jakub Hrůsa, Ludwig Wicki, Alexandre Bloch, Esa-Pekka Salonen, James Shearman and Predrag Gosta.
Rusne won numerous national and international singing competitions in Lithuania and received the Arthur Burcher Memorial Prize, the Toni V Fell Prize and was commended in the Historical Women Composer Prize in the UK. In 2018 she was representing the Royal Academy of Music at the Kathleen Ferrier competition's Junior edition as one of the sixteen top singers across the UK conservatoires.
Rusne actively performs and takes part in masterclasses and festivals in Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Italy and Belgium. Some of the most well-known include the London Singers' Collective Ltd Stanislavsky's Workshop programme, Triomphe de l'Art programme in Brussels, the International Chorus Inside Festival in Rome, the Welsh International Academy of Voice's Summer programme in Cardiff, the Mozarteum University Summer Academy in Salzburg, the St Denis Festival in Paris, and the British Youth Opera Summer festivals in London. Rusne has previously worked with many accomplished singers including Chen Reiss, Anna Samuil, Nuccia Focile, Ann Murray, Michèle Crider, Dennis O’Neill, Della Jones, Jack Li Vigni and Anna Netrebko’s singing teacher Tamara Novicenko.
Rusne is generously supported by the Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, the Clemence Charitable Trust, the Carr-Ellison Family Charitable Trust and the Open Music Foundation