Violinists gathered for “Čiurlionis and the world” conference in Druskininkai

A performance by the young violinists accompanied by Nadežda Okružko, a pianist from Saint Petersburg, opened a week of violin mastery school about the famous Lithuanian painter, composer, and writer. This international festival attracts the most famous researchers and performers of Čiurlionis’ works every year. Participants of this year‘s conference are art critics, historians and music artists from 11 countries, including Australia and Japan. “It is a huge squad of very powerful and talented people who know Čiurlionis’ works very well and they demand a lot from themselves. Čiurlionis is extremely interesting, rich, and the range of his work is huge,” comments art critic Adelbertas Nedzelskis.

Gifted young violinists from Lithuania, United States, and France will gather for a week of performances and high-level violin instruction from celebrated violinists.“I expect results to be very good. I hope the children will play very well and that we will be able to prepare a lot of interesting programmes, visit a lot of exhibitions, go to book presentations, and in general educate ourselves as much as we can. The students who’ve gathered here are very talented,” says Gintvilė Vaitėnaitė, a head teacher at the Čiurlionis art school.

Festival “Druskininkai summer with M. K. Čiurlionis” has expanded to Varėna district. This is were Čiurlionis was born and took his first steps. The festival gets better every year, but “we cannot expand in quantity as we are already holding more than 40 events with over 200 artists,”says Liucija Stulgienė, Lithuania‘s musician support fund director. The biggest novelty in this year‘s festival is the sacred music cycle of concerts “The road of Čiurlionis” taking place in the churches of old Varėna, Perloja, and Liškiava.

“We will work from dusk till dawn very intensively. I know who will play what. I am ready as well. We will play ensembles, duos, trios, and quartets all together at the final concert,” says Dalia Stulgytė-Schmalenberg, concertmaster of Dresden’s symphony orchestra. The final concert of the festival will be held on 22 September, Čiurlionis’ birthday. Lithuania’s national symphony orchestra will perform.