Vilnius Festival 2012
VILNIUS FESTIVAL 2012
16th festival
Dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the European Festivals Association (EFA)
1–8 June, 2012
The Vilnius Festival’s tradition and concerts drawing crowds of listeners have become an inseparable part of Lithuania’s cultural life. Although through stress of objective circumstances the Festival is obliged to limit the scope, its main goal remains as ambitious as ever – presenting the Lithuanian audience with an extraordinary experience. In terms of artistic value the 16th Vilnius Festival will be intensive. Every music admirer will discover something wonderful and interesting.
The Festival will open with a novelty – the appearance of Ailey II, the modern dance company from the USA visiting Lithuania for the first time. As a tradition, the Festival will introduce a large collective – the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra. This year, the recital by a Lithuanian musician is entrusted to bass-baritone Almas Švilpa. The Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra will present a special event – the world premiere of Ennio Morricone’s opus. The Norwegian jazz ensemble The Brazz Brothers will attract jazz aficionados, and Venance Fortunat from France will lure early music connoisseurs.
The Festival will close with the cellist Mischa Maisky, who just recently teamed up with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Robertas Šervenikas in Bratislava. He will perform Shostakovich’s complicated, facetiously ironical and caustically humorous First Cello Concerto. Brahms’ Third Symphony, dubbed the most ‘Brahmsian’ of his four symphonies, will be the Festival’s last chord.
In 1999, the Vilnius Festival was invited to become a member of the European Festivals Association (EFA). This year the EFA marks its 60th anniversary. It is a solid international umbrella organisation involving many festivals. The 16th Vilnius Festival is dedicated to this occasion.
Gintautas Kėvišas,
Director of the Vilnius Festival