Nomeda Valančiūtė (b. 1961) studied composition with Prof. Julius Juzeliūnas at the Lithuanian Academy of Music in 1979-84. The composer is a winner of three S. Šimkus prizes for choral works (1991, 1992, 1994), a prize-winner of the competition of composers arranged by the Lithuanian Music Fund (1996, 1998, 2001). In 2001 she received Brandenburg State scholarship for creative work at the Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf (Germany), in 2002 - the scholarship of Stiftung Kulturfonds for creative work at the Künstlerhaus Lukas (Ahrenshoop, Germany), in 2003 - Schleswig-Holstein State scholarship for creative work at the Künstlerhaus Eckernförde (Germany). Her works were performed at the festival "A*Devantgarde" in Munich (1993), the 9th International Music Festival in Heidelberg (1994), the International Composers Forum in Cottbus (1994), the ISCM World Music Days in Stockholm (1994), Cottbuser Musikherbst (2000, 2001), MaerzMusik in Berlin (2003), and other festivals in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Poland, The Netherlands, Finland, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The strictly calculated music of Nomeda Valančiūtė is, however, not technological by nature - her compositions are all based on a not easily defined intuitive impulse, which is later matured through methodical work with sound material, and then given a precisely polished form. Valanciute's minimalist idiom is connected as much with ancient isorhythmic techniques (rotating patterns of melodies and rhythms which differ in length), as it is with the principles of 20th-century repetitive music. A closer look at the composer's works and their conceptual stimuli reveals interesting internal opposites: frank emotion - and its 'suppression' via uncompromisingly austere structures; a crystal clarity throughout - and the conscious avoidance of 'beauty' (utilization of sharply 'upsetting' disonance, and frequent application of the 'out of tune' sound of a prepared piano, etc); the stance of a 'pure music' adept - and the multidimensional picturesqueness of this music, its oddly 'theatrical' manner of speaking, and a certain 'bittersweet' glamour which applies only to this composer.