Mudre Buckute
cello, cello bow
My name is Mudre Buckute; I’m from Lithuania and live here in the Netherlands. I started playing the cello when I was eight.
When I started, I took lessons from Ilse te Wies, Wiesje van Eersel, and Matthijs Broersma. I completed my bachelor’s degree in The Hague in 2026 under the guidance of Lucia Swarts. In 2017, I began taking music lessons at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Young Talent program. During that time, I was a member of several youth orchestras, where I often served as concertmaster.
I have participated in competitions such as the Princess Christina Competition and the Britten Competition. In 2021 and 2023, I won third prize at the Britten Competition. In 2023, I was awarded second prize in the regional final of the Princess Christina Competition. In 2019, I performed in the first edition of the RCO Young (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Young). We gave concerts at the Concertgebouw and at Flagey in Brussels. We performed Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and the world premiere of “Idyllium” by Detlev Glanert.I was part of a Bach project organized by the Bach Society, NMF, and the Amsterdam Cello Biennale. I recorded the Sarabande from Bach’s Third Suite in April 2022 and then performed the same piece in October 2022 at the Cello Biennale.In 2024, I was a member of the NJO (National Youth Orchestra), with which we performed concerts in seven different venues during our winter tour, including a performance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna. In the summer, we gave concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Berlin Konzerthaus featuring Stravinsky’s *Petrushka*, for which we worked with Peter Leung on choreography within the orchestra itself. In the 10th edition of the Amsterdam Cello Biennale, I advanced to the semifinals of the National Cello Competition. I was awarded the Encouragement Prize and the Start-in-Splendor Prize. From 2019 to 2026, I played a beautiful anonymous cello, and since September 2026, I have been playing this exceptional instrument by Robert Brewer Young. I’m curious to see where this cello will take me next, and I’m very grateful to the Musical Instrument Fund for this opportunity. I also have this beautiful Gerbeth bow.
