Karolina Juodelyte, born in Lithuania in 1990 “is considered one of the leading concert organists, who, in addition to technical brilliance, has a mature artistic style” (Axel Engels in “Westfälische Nachrichten”, 2019).
Her first encounter with music was at the age of six when she entered the Ciurlionis Art School in Vilnius. Her first instrument was the piano. At the age of 12, she learned to play the organ with Vida Prekeryte. She initially studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, where she studied organ with Gediminas Kviklys and Virginija Survilaitė and musicology. She also studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Roman Summereder and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Kari Jussila as part of various exchange programs. She completed her master's and concert exam under Martin Sander at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. She also earned a bachelor's degree in church music there. In 2021, she completed her master's degree in church music at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Karolina Juodelyte has received recognition through awards at international competitions. In 2011, she won the International Ciurlionis Competition in Vilnius and received six special prizes (best performance of the works of M. K. Ciurlionis, best performance of the Fugue in B minor by M. K. Ciurlionis, most creative interpretation of contemporary music, most artistic performance, youngest finalist, opportunity to perform in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic). In 2012 she received the third prize at the International L. Janacek Competition in Brno (Czech Republic). In 2014 she won a prize at the interpretation competition of the Alumnivereins and the AStA of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. In the same year, she received a special prize for the best second round at the International Petr Eben Competition in Opava, Czech Republic. In 2015, she won 2nd place and a special prize for the best interpretation of a work by J. P. Sweelinck at the 9th International J. P. Sweelinck Organ Competition in Gdansk (Poland). In 2017, she received 3rd place at the 1st International Organ Competition in Bialystok (Poland) and was a semi-finalist at the 8th International Organ Competition in Musashino-Tokyo (Japan). In 2019, she was a prizewinner at the 2nd International Organ Competition in Shanghai (China). In 2020, she received 3rd place at the 8th International Franz Schmidt Organ Competition in Vienna (Austria).
Karolina Juodelyte has already performed many concerts both as a soloist and as a chamber music interpreter at national and international festivals in Germany, Finland, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Russia, Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic, and attended masterclasses with renowned organists (G. Bovet, D. Roth, J. Tuma, H. Lucke, T. Jellema, D. Tagliente, S. Cherepanov, H. O. Ericsson, A. Frey, H. Vogel, L. van Doesselar and others). She performs with orchestras such as the Dresden Philharmonic, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the ORSO Philharmonic, the Bielefeld Philharmonic, the Northwest German Philharmonic, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestergesellschaft Detmold, the Magdeburg Philharmonic, the chamber orchestra Berliner Cappella, the Chamber Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Concertino Berlin.
At the end of 2020, she recorded a CD “The Road to Silence” with contemporary Lithuanian organ music (MAMA Studios). Her CD (Odradek Records, 2018) with the Concerto for Organ, Violin and Chamber Orchestra by the Lithuanian composer Julius Juzeliūnas, together with the leading Lithuanian violinist Džeraldas Bidva, the conductor Adrija Čepaitė and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, was shortlisted for the 2019 Grammy Awards. She has also recorded CDs with the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society String Quartet (2013) and opera singer Nora Petročenko (“MAMA Studios”, 2016).
Since 2017, she has played all the world premieres of organ pieces by Lithuanian composers at the International Musicology Conference in Lithuania. From 2018 to 2022, she taught at the Vilnius Academy of Music and Theater.
In 2019, she participated in a music video by director Darius Abaris, which was shown with live music by the Lithuanian Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Robertas Šervenikas during the event at the Lithuanian Opera Theater to mark Lithuanian Independence Day. That same year, she performed at the Lithuanian Philharmonic Hall together with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sergey Krylov. In 2012 and 2013, she received a thank you from Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite and from the Chairman of the Lithuanian Seimas Irena Degutiene. She was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Society of Friends and Supporters of the Detmold University of Music and the A. Teopfer Foundation (Concerto Music Scholarship). From 2015 to 2017 she was organist and choirmaster at the Protestant Reformed Church in Detmold-Heiligenkirchen. From 2020 to 2021 Karolina Juodelyte was cantor at the Paulus-Gemeinde Berlin/Tempelhof. From 2022 to 2024 she was church musician at the Holy Family Church in Berlin-Lichterfelde. Since July 2024 she has been church musician at the Bernhard Lichtenberg Parish in Berlin-Mitte.