International Klaipėda Cello Festival

This year’s festival expands its horizons with world premieres presented by top performers. Come and listen to a new cycle for cello, shamanic drum and choir by one of Lithuania’s most prolific composers. The music will sound magical and enchanting as the sounds of the cellos and the beautiful voices of the performers intertwine under the vaults of the Chapel of St Francis of Assisi!

One of Lithuania’s most prolific composers and a winner of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts, Vytautas Miškinis, has created a new three-part cycle for cello, shamanic drum and mixed choir entitled ‘He Came and Sat by My Side’. The piece is based on Gitanjali (1912) by Rabindranath Tagore’s, for which the poet received the Nobel Prize in 1913. Commissioned by Klaipėda Choir Aukuras, this piece will have its world premiere at the concert.

The concert will also feature Agnus Dei by Norwegian composer Egil Hovland and Svyati for cello and choir by Sir John Tavener. These works will be performed alongside the Choir Aukuras, led by Mindaugas Bačkus, cellist and artistic director of Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra, as well as Kornelija Kupšytė, one of the most talented young Lithuanian cellists, and Andrzej Bauer from Poland, who has won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, is a laureate of the Prague Spring International Competition, and has received a prestigious award under the patronage of the European Parliament and the European Council.