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Vilnius Chamber Choir “Jauna Muzika” (Lithuania)

concert

19. 11. 2010 – Friday
8 pm
MB Zwycięska Church, ul. Łąkowa 40

About Christian Culture Festival

Christian Culture Festival was organized for the first time in 1997 on 10th Anniversary of the Logos Theatre. In a sense, it extends the idea of Christian Culture Weeks organized in Poland in 70s and 80s of the last century, which were to become counterpoise to lay media model promoted by the State. Lodz Christian Culture Days were organized in churches all around the city, so as to accommodate the artists, spectacles, exhibitions and projections.

One of such places was the John Paul lecture theatre in the vault of the Assumption of Holy Mother Church in Kościelna Street. This is where the Logos Theatre started, before it was moved to the church in Maria Skłodowska-Curie. It was this church that Archbishop Władysław Ziółek gave to the Lodz artists in 1993, and in which the Centre of Creative Communities’ of Lodz Archdiocese was appointed. It is here that the ‘logistic’ centre of the Festival is located, and where some of the Festival events take place.

Traditionally, the Festival takes place in November, on the first Sunday after All Soul’s Day. It usually lasts for two weeks, during which various event take place – spectacle premiers, other theatres come to Lodz, there are exhibitions of invited artists, performances of choirs and musicians, very often not to be seen anywhere else in Poland at any other time. The Festival programme is the result of the whole year’s work of rev. Waldemar Sondka, the Festival Director, who – using his contacts – invites artists who are interesting, out of the ordinary, noteworthy and creating art perhaps not always religious, but always searching and at the highest level. Care for the level of the Festival offers is a permanent rule, the Logos environment has always wished to provide the Lodz citizens with the possibility of contact with art deprived of parochialism, open to the man and as perfect formally as possible.

The Festival is not an activity that brings profit. Any entrance cards are issued as invitations that are free of charge, and the team of the Logos Theatre and all the people engaged in the Festival organization, act as volunteers. This does not mean that Christian Culture Festival costs nothing. On the contrary, to organize such a cultural event at appropriate level is always connected with costs. Rev. Waldemar Sondka deals with organizing means to secure the Festival events all year round. He manages to gain sponsors (without whom the Festival would not exist) and subsidies from institutions that deal with funding culture (without which the Festival could not develop). All that in order to realize the basic idea of the event that derived from the Lodz Christian Culture Days – to enable anyone who wishes and needs that, to live the Mystery through art. This idea assumes a free of charge participation in all the artistic events, which has been the case since the very beginning of the Festival until today, the only condition is that on the day of the Festival opening, one must queue as long as it takes to get invitations. The only limit to the number of invitations is the capacity of rooms in which the events are organized every day throughout the two weeks of the Festival.


 

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Vilnius Municipal Choir “Jauna Muzika”

“Jauna Muzika” (“Young Music”) Chamber Choir came into being in 1989. In 1990 — 1996 “Jauna Muzika” has participated at 16 international choral competitions and became a prizewinner of 14 of them. In Varna in 1993, it won the Grand Prix Europeo at the choral competition organized by the International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM). In 1994, “Jauna Muzika” was awarded an official status of the Vilnius Municipal Choir “Jauna Muzika” and gained recognition at home winning the Grand Prix at the World Lithuanian Song Contest.

The founders and the first leaders of the Vilnius Municipal Choir was the composer Remigijus Merkelys and manager Algis Gurevičius. The present conductor of the choir, the composer Vaclovas Augustinas, has been leading it since 1992.

The choir is comprised of professional musicians, the graduates and students of the Lithuanian Academy of Music. The number of singers varies from 24 to 50 according to the requirements of the repertoire. “Jauna Muzika” is a very productive ensemble presenting an average of 60 concerts per year at home and abroad.

The mission of “Jauna Muzika” is to present valuable and extremely diverse repertoire of choral music a capella. Requiring especial skills and mastery, this mission gave the choir a possibility to achieve a very high standard that was widely recognized in the world. Besides a capella repertoire the choir has often performed full-scale vocal-instrumental compositions together with the world-famous orchestras, such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, The Israel Camerata, Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bach Soloists Berlin, Moscow Virtuosi, St. Petersburg Camerata and Novosibirsk Camerata. In Lithuania the choir has appeared with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Vilnius Municipal St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, with which “Jauna Muzika” has been continually collaborating.

Many famous conductors including Pinchas Steinberg, Wolfgang Gönenwein, Noam Sheriff, Frieder Bernius, David Shallon, Nicholas McGegan, Anders Eby, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Spivakov, Werner Pfaff, Simon Halsey, Hermann Max, Albert Hartinger, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Bo Holten, Manfred Honeck, William Boughton, Murry Sidlin, Avner Biron, Rheinhardt Goebel, Tonu Kaljuste, Bob Chilcott, Saulius Sondeckis have conducted the choir. The choir has performed with many celebrated musicians of nowadays, such as the cellist Mark Drobinsky, singers Robin Blaze, Eva Ben-Zvi, Benno Schollum, Adam Zdunikowski, Anatolij Safiulin, Gerard Lesne, cantor Joseph Malovany, as well as with outstanding Lithuanian soloists Virgilijus Noreika, Sigutė Stonytė, Judita Leitaitė, Algirdas Janutas, Audrius Rubežius.

A very important area of the choir’s activities is representation of the Lithuanian choral art in foreign countries. The concert tours have been taking “Jauna Muzika” throughout Europe, and they have visited also China, Japan and Israel several times. The choir has appeared in the world’s most prestigious concert halls such Philharmonie im Gasteig (Munich), Suzan Dellal Center (Tel Aviv), Fredric R.Mann Auditorium (Tel Aviv), Haifa Auditorium, Bimot (Jerusalem), Festsaal Kulturpalast Dresden, Ludwigsburg Theater im Forum, St. Matthew Church (Budapest), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), the Chamber Hall of Berlin Philharmonic, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Grand Opera of Shanghai, Novosibirsk Philharmonic, “Nowaya Opera”, G. Vyshnewskaya and S. Rachmaninov Halls (Moscow), Queen Elisabeth Hall (London).

During the period of 17 years “Jauna Muzika” has accumulated valuable and very diverse repertoire, which includes compositions a capella by Bach, Vivaldi, Schütz, Brahms, Poulenc, Schönberg, Messiaen, Ligeti, Xenakis, Berio, Pärt and others, as well as vocal-instrumental masterpieces such as Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, Messiah, Four Coronation Anthems, Psalm No. 109 Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Mass in B minor, Magnificat, and cantatas, Verdi’ Requiem, Mozart’s Davide penitente, Requiem, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Noam Scheriff’s Psalms of Jerusalem and Mehaye Hametim, Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, and others. “Jauna Muzika” often performs compositions by Lithuanian composers Osvaldas Balakauskas, Feliksas Bajoras, Mindaugas Urbaitis, Vidmantas Bartulis, Nomeda Valančiūtė, Onutė Narbutaitė, Vaclovas Augustinas, Remigijus Merkelys, Giedrius Svilainis, Raminta Šerkšnytė and many others.

Being not only a performing collective, “Jauna Muzika” has initiated and carried out many significant musical projects.

Since 1995, the choir has been organizing annual workshops on interpretation and choral conducting. The workshops are usually led by the world-famous choral conductors from abroad and are held to acquaint the audience of choral conductors, teachers and students from high and higher schools with modern tendencies of the development of choral art. Under the leadership of Frieder Bernius, the artistic director of the Kammerchor Stuttgart and Barockorchester Stuttgart, Werner Pfaff, the artistic director of the Studio Vocale Karlsruhe (Germany), Anders Eby, the artistic director of the Mikaeli Choir (Sweden), Simon Halsey, the chorus master of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus (Great Britain), Hermann Max, the artistic director of Rheinische Kantorei (Germany), Albert Hartinger, the artistic director of Collegium Vocale Salzburg (Austria), and Rinaldo Alessandrini, the artistic director of Concerto Italiano (Italy), Ira Spaulding (USA), the artistic director of choir’s of Wiener Singverein and Viena Chamber Johannes Priz, Gary Graden, the artistic director of St. Jacobs Chamber Choir, Bo Holten, the artistic of vocal music ensemble “Musica Ficta” and quest conductor of BBC Singers, Bob Chilcott, composer and quest conductor of BBC Singers.

In 1998, on the initiative of “Jauna Muzika”, there was organized the International Music Festival Eternal Jerusalem. The concerts of the festival took place in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, and in the Vilnius City Hall. Many famous Lithuanian and foreign performers appeared at the event together with “Jauna Muzika”.

In the end of 2000, “Jauna Muzika” and the Vilnius City Hall Festival invited the lovers of Baroque music to another cycle of concerts, English and French Baroque Music, which featured The King’s Consort (Great Britain) and Il Seminario Musicale (France).

In 2001 there was organized the “German — Polish-Lithuanian Baroque Days” with participation “Musica Antiqua Koln” and “Cappella Gedanensis”.

From 2002 — Cycle of the concerts dedicate to the reconstruction of the organ of the Lutheran Evangelic Church in Vilnius. From 2006 — choir organize choral music cycle in Vilnius St . Carherine Church

Prizes

1990
Corck (Ireland) — First Prize
Spittal (Austria) — First Prize
Takarazuka (Japan) — Grand Prix

1991
Gorizia (Italy) — First Prize
Cantonigros (Spain) — First Prize

1992
Montreux (Switzerland) — First Prize
Debrecen (Hungary) — Grand Prix
Zwickau (Germany) — First Prize

1993
Takarazuka (Japan) — Grand Prix
Neuchatel (Switzerland) — First Prize
Varna (Bulgaria) — Grand Prix Europeo

1996
Tolosa (Spain) — First Prize

1994
World Lithuanian Song Contest — Grand Prix
Award of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania for representation of works by Lithuanian composers in the world

2000
“The Best Choir ’1999”, award of the Lithuanian Culture Center

2002
“The Best Choir” 2002, award of the Lithuanian Musicians Associate

2003
“The Vilnius Fame”, award of the Lithuanian Institute for making Vilnius famous abroad

2006
“Mūzų malūnas” award

Concert Tours

1990 Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, Japan;
1991 Holland (Vox Festival), Germany, Austria (Wienerfestwoche), Italy;
1992 Denmark, Switzerland, Germany;
1993 Germany, Sweden (Swedish National Convention of Choral Conductors ’93, Växjö), Denmark (Copenhagen Choir Festival ’93);
1994 Germany, Israel (Tel-Aviv Chamber and Vocal Music Festival);
1995 Finland, Hungary (Budapest Spring), Israel, Slovenia (European Symposium on Choral Music), Germany (Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele, Dresden);
1996 Norway, (Nordic-Baltic Choir Festival, Skien; Elverum Music Festival), Sweden, France;
1997 Russia, Israel (Jerusalem Liturgica ’97);
1998 Russia;
1999 Holland, Israel;
2000 Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Belorussia;
2001 Israel, Germany, China, Russland;
2002 Poland, Israel, France, Denmark;
2003 Russia, Slovenia, Germany, Poland, Great Britain;
2004 Poland (Gaude Mater Festival, Wratislavia Cantans 04), Austria, Norway;
2005 Austria, France, Poland;
2006 Austria, Poland, Denmark;
2007 Netherlands, Ireland;
2008 Israel, Germany;

Vaclovas Augustinas

The choral conductor, composer and teacher, graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music in choral conducting (1981) and composition (1992).

From 1980 till 1992, he worked at the Ąžuoliukas Music School. Since 1992, he has been leading the “Jauna Muzika” Chamber Choir.

Vaclovas Augustinas is a member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, Lithuanian Choral Union and American Association of Choral Conductors.

In 1993, as a guest conductor he participated at the Swedish National Convention of Choral Conductors in Växjö.

In 1996, he led a workshop on choral conducting at the 16th Jornadas Coralistas Aragonesas International Festival in Spain.

He was Chief Conductor at the World Lithuanian Song Festival in 1998.

In 1999, he lectured and gave seminars at the World Symposium on Choral Music in Rotterdam, Holland.

In 2000, he conducted the joint choir of the Nordic-Baltic Choir Festival.

Since 1995, Vaclovas Augustinas has been closely collaborating with well-known European specialists on choral conducting. Together with "Jauna Muzika" he has organized workshops led by the famous European choral conductors in Vilnius.

Vaclovas Augustinas’s choral works are popular both at home and abroad. Some of his choral compositions have been published in USA by Alliance Music Publications, Inc., Houston, Texas, and Laurendale Associates, Van Nuys, California.

V.Augustinas received prizes for his choral compositions at several national and international competitions, including "Florilege Vocal de Tours", France (1996) and Song Competition for the Lithuanian National Song Festivals (1997 and 19987).

Since 1996, Vaclovas Augustinas is a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Vilnius University of Pedagogy. He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts of Klaipėda University and at the Vilnius Center of Musical Education.