Mindaugas Rojus

Mindaugas Rojus (b. 24 January 1981 in Darbėnai, Kretinga district, Lithuania) is an opera singer (tenor / baritone). He studied choral conducting with Audronė Purlienė and solo singing with Valerija Balsytė at the Klaipėda Stasys Šimkus Conservatory. In 2001–2002, he completed preparatory studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, in the class of Prof. Vladimiras Prudnikovas. From 2004 to 2006, he studied singing with Mindaugas Gylys and Eduardas Kaniava at the Singing Department of the Faculty of Arts of Klaipėda University, where he completed his Master’s degree.

Since 2006, he has been soloist of the Klaipėda State Music Theatre. He has performed dozens of roles in operas, operettas and musicals, among which the most important are: Figaro (in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, 1996), Giorgio Germont (in Verdi’s La traviata, 2003), Phoebus (in Zigmars Liepiņš’s opera-melodrama Parīzes Dievmātes Katedrāle, 2005), Eugene Onegin (in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, 2006), Gabriel von Eisenstein (in Johann Strauss II operetta Die Fledermaus, 2006), Marquis Aristide de Faublas (in Paul Abraham’s operetta Ball im Savoy, 2007), Radish (in Antanas Kučinskas’ opera for children A Potato Tale, 2007), Prince Ypsheim-Gindelbach (in Strauss’s II operetta Wiener Blut, 2008), The Man with the Cow (in Vladimiras Konstantinovas’ opera for children Whatever Grandpa Does, Everything Will Be Fine, 2008), Brother (in Vidmantas Bartulis’ opera Dawn), Jake (in a semi-staged concert after George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, 2008), Pelléas (in Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Melisande, 2009), Juozelis (in Giedrius Kuprevičius’ musical Veronika, 2009), Pierrot (in Jurgis Gaižauskas’ opera for children Burattino, 2009), Herstvuds (in Raimonds Pauls’s musical Māsa Kerija, 2009), Perchik and Tevye (in Jerry Bock’s musical Fiddler on the Roof, 2011), Aeneas (in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, 2011), Gianni Schicchi (in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, 2011), Girdvainis (in Vyacheslav Ganelin’s musical The Devil’s Bride, 2012), Sergeant Belcore (in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, 2013), Mister X (in Kálmán’s operetta Mister X (Circus Princess), 2014), The Spaghetti King (in Antanas Kučinskas’ opera for children The Noodle Opera, 2014), Bud Frump (in Frank Loesser’s musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, 2015), Ted Hinton (in Frank Wildhorn’s musical Bonnie & Clyde, 2016), Marcello (in Puccini’s La bohème, 2016), Ibn-Hakia (in P. Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, 2016), Tonio (in Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci, 2017), Herkus Mantas (in Giedrius Kuprevičius’ opera Prussians, 2018), Dr. Pangloss/Martin (in Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide, 2018), White Crow (in A. Kučinskas’ opera for children The Star Opera, 2019), Don Giovanni (in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, 2019), Rafter (in Eduardas Balsys’ opera The Journey to Tilsit, 2019), Jupiter (in Offenbach’s operetta Orphée aux enfers, 2020), and The Wedding Marshal (in Bronius Kutavičius’ opera The Bear, 2022) and Martynas Jankus in the opera of stories Klaipėda (2023).

He was nominated twice for the Golden Cross of the Stage award for the role of Prince Ypsheim in the operetta Wiener Blut (2009) and the role of Herkus Mantas in Kuprevičius’ opera Prussians (2019), and for The Masque of Gratitude award for the role of the Marquis Aristide de Faublas in Abraham’s operetta Ball im Savoy (Debut of the Year, 2008) and the role of Gianni Schicchi in Puccini’s opera of the same title (Role of the Year, 2012).

The soloist also took part in the KSMT’s concert programmes, including “Straussiana” (based on the music of Johann Strauss II, 2006), “I will pick the red rose” (based on the popular songs by Algimantas Raudonikis, 2005), “Spanish Sarsuela” (2017), “Italian Songs” (2018), and “The Feast of Operetta” (dedicated for the jubilee of Stanislavas Domarkas, 2019).

Together with his fellow soloist, soprano Loreta Ramelienė, they perform as the duo Žemaitijos perlai (Pearls of Žemaitija), whose repertoire includes popular classics and songs. In 2009, he became a semi-finalist in the Lithauanian National Television project-competition for singers, called “Triumphal Arch.”

He has given concerts in Poland, Latvia, Russia, Italy, Germany and participated in vocal competitions.