CHRONICLES OF CULTURE from close quarters (2009). Eight retrospect concerts of Lithuanian music, featuring the Trimitas State Wind Instrument Orchestra, the Kaunas State Choir, the Lietuva State Song and Dance Ensemble, Sabina Martinaitytė, Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė and the students of singing of the Kaunas Faculty of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Liudas Mikalauskas and Andrius Apšega, were held in Vilnius, Kaunas, Tauragė, Raseiniai, Druskininkai and Biržai. Especially for this programme, a new composition was written by the composer Sigitas Mickis.
A choreographic/musical performance, entitled KELK, BROLELI (2010, together with the Lietuva State Song and Dance Ensemble). The music for the performance (scriptwriter Liudvikas Jakimavičius, director Albertas Vidžiūnas) was composed by Giedrius Svilainis and Vidmantas Bartulis. With this performance, the Lietuva ensemble wanted not only to mark its 70th anniversary in an original way, but also to convey a new approach to folk genres. So, the ensemble’s own recognisable style was enriched by special effects, folk and jazz music, and performances by Irena Starošaitė and Edmundas Seilius.
CHOPIN LT (2010). To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin, a CD by Šviesė Čepliauskaitė was released, in which Chopin’s music is intertwined with piano compositions by the Lithuanian composers Vidmantas Bartulis, Leonas Povilaitis, Teisutis Makačinas, Dalia Raudonikytė-With, Jonas Tamulis and Zita Bružaitė. The CD was presented not only in Lithuania, but also in Oslo, Norway.
LITHUANIAN MUSIC IN THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL CAPITALS (2010). The project was implemented together with the Lithuanian Ensemble Network (LEN) and included a CD of new Lithuanian music. The works by Vykintas Baltakas, Osvaldas Balakauskas, Egidija Medekšaitė, Loreta Narvilaitė and Nomeda Valančiūtė, featured on the CD, were also performed in a concert in Duisburg (Germany).
A SESSION. BEWARE OF THE PREMIERE! (2011/2012). In May 2011, a unique concert took place at the Vilnius Congress Hall. The project involved the outstanding Lithuanian composers Vaclovas Augustinas, Algirdas Martinaitis, Faustas Latėnas, Zita Bružaitė, Linas Rimša, Giedrius Puskunigis and Gintaras Sodeika, musicians of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, and technological audio and video solutions by the video artists Grėtė Krivickaitė and Džiugas Katinas. Later the project was repeated and in 2012 released on DVD. The performances and the DVD were dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union and were aimed to promote contemporary Lithuanian music.
THE CONCERT CYCLE KAUNAS COMPOSERS: BETWEEN SOUND AND SILENCE (2011). To mark the 40th anniversary of the Kaunas Branch of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, concerts were held at the Kaunas County Public Library and the Kaunas Artists House, and meetings with Kaunas-based composers and musicologists with a unique exhibition on them were organised at the Kaunas County Public Library. The anniversary year provided a nice opportunity to release a CD and a richly illustrated retrospect publication about Kaunas composers. Vladas Švedas, the eldest member of the Kaunas Branch, was commissioned to write a new chamber composition, which was performed to mark the occasion.
NEW MUSIC DIALOGUES, a cycle of relevant meetings and concerts, initiated by Beata Baublinskienė and Zita Bružaitė, was devoted to relationships between composer and performer in 2011, and to chamber music in 2012. The cycle of events called New Music Dialogues: Creator and Performer was aimed to bridge the gap between composer and performer. In 2011, in collaboration with contemporary music festivals taking place in different Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda), a number of events took place, and in November the Composers House in Vilnius hosted the closing round-table discussion on the issues of new music performance and other relevant problems, which were discussed by performers (Robertas Šervenikas, Skaidra Jančaitė, Rūta Ibelhauptienė, etc.), composers (Ramūnas Motiekaitis, Egidija Medekšaitė, Feliksas Bajoras, etc.), festival organisers (Zita Bružaitė, Antanas Jasenka, Remigijus Merkelys, etc.), music critics and students. These discussions proved that it is highly important for different “players” in the field of contemporary music to listen carefully to each other’s opinions and not to confine oneself to one’s own “guild” or even one’s own country. In 2012, the cycle of relevant meetings and concerts was continued to conclude, once again, with a round-table discussion between composers and leaders of chamber ensembles.
LIVE READINGS (2012) is a gathering of literature experts, creators and lovers, aimed at creating and maintaining traditions of living literature and at initiating and developing new forms of “talk meetings” that would encourage the creation of new Lithuanian dramatic works. At 9 pm on 15 June, at the Fluxus Ministry, Kaunas’ new venue that began its activities with fresh creative initiatives, unconventional “nightly” readings of new Lithuanian dramatic works took place. The author of the idea was the internet writer Svoloč from the website www.rašyk.lt. During the event, new works or excerpts from new works by internet writers (Jaunas Žmogus, Varna, Žil, Simonas Stanevičius) were presented and narrated, in a slightly “theatrical” manner, by a troupe of actors directed by Rimantas Štaras and Nida Žilinskienė. The new works were preceded by excerpts from the works Prieblandoje (In the Twilight) and Šarūnas by, respectively, the Lithuanian classical writers Antanas Vienuolis and Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, the 130th anniversaries of whose births are marked this year.
MAIRONIS, KALANTA AND I (2012). This sound and video performance evoked and added a contemporary flavour to the emotions experienced in the times of the poet Maironis and the dissident Romas Kalanta, and to such code words as “homeland”, “faith”, “freedom”, “love”, and “hope”. Eventually, the music of the Lithuanian choral epoch and hippie times and the philosophy of resistance were “covered” by the sounds of modern club music. The project was implemented by the author of the idea Zita Bružaitė, the scriptwriter Herkus Kunčius, the director Tomas Stirna, the actor Remigijus Endriukaitis, the Balsai vocal ensemble led by Egidijus Kaveckas, the percussionist Arvydas Joffė, and DJs Benas Sakalauskas-Benua and Andrius Kauklys-Alien.
