Cello and Voices

This concert invites us to experience the spellbinding effect that the combination of voices and cello creates. The cello is said to have the same range as the human voice and is therefore considered the most ‘human’ instrument. The harmony of voices and cello in this concert promises a cosy and emotionally luminous evening.

The Šiauliai State Chamber Choir Polifonija (Artistic Director Linas Balandis), which recently won first prize and the Grand Prix at one of the largest international choir contests, “Golden Voices of Montserrat” in Spain, invites us to immerse ourselves in the music of the strings and choir. We will also hear Julija Ivanovaitė (violin, viola) and Kornelija Kupšytė (cello) play solo with the choir, conducted by Imantas Jonas Šimkus.

The programme features music by composers whose names immediately make you think of sublime beauty, melody, harmony, meaning, even sacredness. John Tavener opens up his soul through his musical language of ‘sacred simplicity’, inviting the listener, whether he is a believer or not, to contemplate the great mystery of human existence. The works of Latvian Pēteris Vasks raise timeless questions about life and death, harmony and chaos, and, of course, about nature. “I cannot live without nature, birds are like a symbol for me. A symbol of pure nature, a symbol of a pure conscience. When I write about birds, I think about people,” says Vasks. At the age of 25, Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds was already known all over the world. Since then, he has been the most prominent Latvian composer of choral music, awarded the highest state and artistic prizes, and his work has been performed by choirs around the world. Norwegian Ola Gjeilo lives and works in New York, so his work is inevitably influenced by the rhythm of the city. Written in an attractive, contemporary musical language, his works draw from the city a rich spatial sound, overlapping several layers, from which also come the motifs of human creation.