Contemporary Music Festival
MUSIC OF CHANGES
19 September – 4 October 2013
Klaipėda Concert Hall
For more information about the festival events and available discounts visit the festival's website at http://www.koncertusale.lt/
PROGRAMME
Thursday 19 September
5 pm Pre-concert talk
6 pm “American Music: Experience and Get Shocked”
Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra
Artistic Director Mindaugas Bačkus
Conductor Neal Stulberg (USA)
Soloists Andrius Žiūra (clarinet), Linas Valickas (violin)
Lou Harrison – Suite for Symphonic Strings
Aaron Copland – Clarinet Concerto
**
David S. Lefkowitz – White Clouds, Sash-Like Wrap Mountain Waists smuikui ir styginių orkestrui
Osvaldo Golijov – Last Round
Michael Daugherty – Strut
What is the music by contemporary American composers like? Does it show any signs of the original American style? What influence did the European musical traditions have on its development? How did it shape under the influence of the local musical traditions, embracing, above all, jazz and various Afro-American musics? Is there anything fascinating, or even shocking about it?
The festival’s opening programme “American Music: Experience and Get Shocked” presented by the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra will make a comprehensive introduction to the omnifarious and multinational soundscape of American contemporary music. This programme has been compiled especially for this concert by the American conductor Neal Stulberg whose concert itineraries extend from North America across the Atlantic and to Australia.
Tickets: Lt20, Lt30. All discounts are available for this concert.
Tuesday 24 September
6 pm, at the Ground Floor Foyer
Video Club “Musical Letters to Sofija”
The club’s special guest, pianist and actor Rokas Zubovas talks about his contribution to the film Letters to Sofija (written and directed by Robert Mullan, Gizmo Films Productions, 2012, UK)
Letters to Sofija is a biopic that dramatises the last years in the life of Lithuanian genius Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, his love for the writer, his future wife Sofija Kymantaitė, and his homeland. Starring in the leading role is pianist Rokas Zubovas, Čiurlionis’ great grandson, whose subtle acting creates a vivid portrayal of his great grandfather’s emotional world. Zubovas must be also credited with recording the entire music for this film.
The festival’s video club “Musical Letters to Sofija” offers a meeting with Rokas Zubovas, at which he will share his experiences about the work on the filming locations and the role of music in the making of a film. The talk will be accompanied by fragments from the film and some deleted musical scenes.
Tickets: Lt15. Admission free for schoolchildren, students, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
Wednesday 25 September
5 pm Pre-concert talk
6 pm “Sound Catchers”
Quasar Saxophone Quartet (Canada): Marie-Chantal Leclair (Artistic Director, soprano saxophone), Mathieu Leclair (alto saxophone), André Leroux (tenor saxophone), Jean-Marc Bouchard (baritone saxophone)
Jean-François Laporte – Incantation
Helena Tulve – Öö
Jimmie Leblanc – Rouge
**
John Butcher – Balance
Louis Andriessen – Facing Death
An ardent devotee of the music of our time, the Quasar Saxophone Quartet from Quebec returns to the Music of Changes Festival in Klaipėda. Celebrated for its energy, audacity and exceptional technical ability, Quasar explores different aspects of artistic creation from instrumental music to live electronics, from improvisation to instrumental theatre. The ensemble has formed solid partnerships with a number of Canadian and international composers, aiming to provide a platform for new music experiments, exploration and production. This concert will be no exception: in the programme titled “Sound Catchers” it will explore various characteristics of sound, texture and timbre, allowing us to experience their magic power. So do not hesitate and rush to this concert!
Tickets: Lt20, Lt30. All discounts are available for this concert.
Friday 27 September
5 pm Pre-concert
6 pm “Mountain Sonata”
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Juozas Domarkas
Soloists: Mike Svoboda (trombone, Germany), Petras Geniušas (piano), Indrė Baikštytė (piano), Ingrida Armonaitė (violin)
Eduardas Balsys – Dramatic Frescoes for violin, piano and symphony orchestra
Raminta Šerkšnytė – Mountains in the Mist for symphony orchestra
**
Osvaldas Balakauskas – Mountain Sonata for piano and symphony orchestra
Ričardas Kabelis – Monopoly for trombone and symphony orchestra
A magnificent plateau of orchestral sound will await you in the programme “Mountain Sonata,” luring with its vertiginous heights. The programme performed by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its Artistic Director, Juozas Domarkas, consists exclusively of works by Lithuanian composers. All of the latter have been and some of them still are faculty members of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre that celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. Conductor Juozas Domarkas, pianist Petras Geniušas and violinist Ingrida Armonaitė who will appear in this programme are professors at the same academy. Another guest of this concert is German trombonist Mike Svoboda who is widely renowned for his innovative trombone performance. He currently combines active concert career with teaching trombone and contemporary chamber music at the University of Music in Basel.
This programme has been developed in collaboration with the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society and Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Tickets: Lt20, Lt30. All discounts are available for this concert.
Tuesday 1 October
7 pm, at the Klaipėda Railway Station (Priestočio g. 1)
“Sound Trains”, dedicated to the International Music Day
Chordos String Quartet: Ieva Sipaitytė (1st violin), Vaida Paukštienė (2nd violin), Robertas Bliškevičius (viola), Vita Šiugždinienė (cello)
Videos by Deividas Pinkevičius and Leonas Žukauskas
Nomeda Valančiūtė – Fragment from a Hospital Park
Rytis Mažulis – Sans pause
Terry Riley – "Good Medicine Dance" from Salome Dances for Peace
**
Steve Reich – Different Trains
The most unusual venue and the special occasion (International Music Day) will encourage the audience, gathered for the “Sound Trains” concert at the Klaipėda Railway Station, to open up for new impressions and changes. The main attraction of this programme is Steve Reich’s famous string quartet piece Different Trains. Inspired by Reich’s childhood memories, this work features recordings of train sounds in America and Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, interviews with people who travelled those trains, their memories of wartime and Holocaust. The original recording of this piece by the Kronos Quartet won Grammy in 1989 for the Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
The Lithuanian Chordos String Quartet, formed fifteen years ago, has demonstrated its long-standing commitment to promoting modern Lithuanian music in the world and introducing the best of the world’s contemporary repertoire for string quartet in Lithuania.
This concert, accompanied by the sound of a real train passing by, will surely leave lasting impressions!
Admission free
Friday 4 October
5 pm Pre-concert talk
6 pm “Meditation – Expression”
Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra
Artistic Director Mindaugas Bačkus
Soloists: Liudas Mockūnas (saxophone), Vytautas Sriubikis (flute)
Raminta Šerkšnytė – De profundis; Concerto for saxophone and chamber orchestra; Fairy-tale of the Little Prince fro flute and string orchestra
**
Eddie Sauter – Focus Siuite for saxophone and orchestra
“Meditation – Expression” will introduce two different composers and two soloists with very distinct approaches to interpretation. Meditative, full of profound symbolism and indirect allusions, the music of Raminta Šerkšnytė will be presented in the first half of the concert, with flautist Vytautas Sriubikis soloing in one the pieces. The second half will feature an expressive and original composition for saxophone and string orchestra by Eddie Sauter. Fusing the elements of contemporary classical music and jazz, composed and improvised moments, it will provide plenty of opportunities to demonstrate the interpreter‘s talent of Liudas Mockūnas. According to the Artistic Director of the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra, Mindaugas Bačkus, this piece has never been performed in Lithuania before.
Tickets: Lt20, Lt30. All discounts are available for this concert.
Guardian: Klaipėda Municipality
Sponsor: Lithuanian Culture Support Foundation
Partners:
Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
JSC “Lithuanian Railways”
Klaipėda Daily
Media sponsors: daily newspaper Vakarų ekspresas, Radio station Radijo Gama, JSC “Solos Media”, news portals http://www.15min.lt/, http://www.kulturpolis.lt/, http://www.klaipedos.info/, http://www.eitne.lt/, classified ads newspaper Pliusas
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Where to book and buy tickets?
Tickets for the concerts at the Klaipėda Concert Hall are distributed by the national ticketing system BILIETAI LT. Information and bookings by short service number 1588 (Lt2/min).
In person at the Klaipėda Concert Hall Box Office, 36 Šaulių g., ph: +370 46 410566
Opening times:
- Mondays closed;
- Tue-Fri 11am – 6pm (lunch break 2–2.30pm);
- Sat 11am – 3pm;
- if events are scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays, the Box Office is open 2 hours prior to the start of the performance.
Available discounts:
· 20% off for schoolchildren, students, senior citizens and disabled persons (appropriate cards to be shown);
· Admission free for persons in wheelchairs and a 20% discount for an accompanying person (appropriate card to be shown);
· 20% off for Laisvalaikio Card holders (applicable to 2 tickets);
· 20% off for Daily Card holders (applicable to 2 tickets);
· 10% off for group bookings (20 and more tickets for one event).
Please note that children under 7 are not admitted to the evening concerts. The Klaipėda Concert Hall offers special educational projects for pre-school children and their parents.
