8.08 – Friday – 8:30 pm

/ the tower of St. Catherine’s Church /

Lithuanian Weekend – 150 years of Čiurlionis – a Synthesis of the Arts
Concert with improvisations to musical paintings by Čiurlionis

Urtė Krutkevičiūtė

Ignas Vydeika

Vilius Aleinikovas
(Klaipeda /Lithuania)

Witold Maciak

Zuzanna Podolak

Artur Samul

Monika Kaźmierczak
(Poland)

Witold Maciak, Ignas Vydeika

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911)
Preludium Pastoralė VL 187 (opr. I. Vydeika)

Improwizacja na temat obrazu Viršelio Poezye ir kompozicijos eskiazi
(Okładka Poezyi i szkic kompozycyjny)(opr. I. Vydeika)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/virselio-poezye-ir-kompozicijos-eskizai-cg-56-26

Zuzanna Podolak, Artur Samul

Improwizacja na temat obrazu Karalių pasaka (Opowieść o królach)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/karaliu-pasaka-35

Loreta Narvilaitė (*1965)
Pavasario motyvas (Motyw wiosenny, inspirowane obrazem M. K. Čiurlionisa o tym samym tytule)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/pavasario-motyvas

Monika Kaźmierczak

Magdalena Cynk-Mikołajewska (*1968)
Angelas (Angelo preliudas) (Preludium aniołów, inspirowane obrazem M. K. Čiurlionisa o tym samym tytule)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/angelo-preliudas

Urtė Krutkevičiūtė

Giedrius Kuprevičius (*1944)
Preludium in memoriam M. K. Čiurlionis (opr. S. Žilevičius)

Vilius Aleinikovas

Improwizacja na temat szóstego obrazu cyklu Laidotuvių simfonija (Symfonia pogrzebowa)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/laidotuviu-simfonija-7-paveikslu-ciklas

Zuzanna Podolak, Artur Samul

Improwizacja na temat obrazu Žiema II (Zima II)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/ziema-2

Artur Samul

Improwizacja na temat obrazu Žiema IV (Zima IV)

https://ciurlionis.eu/content/ziema-4

Saulė eina Svarstyklių ženklu (Słońce w znaku Wagi, inspirowane obrazem M.K.Čiurlionisa o tym samym tytule)

https://ciurlionis.eu/en/content/saule-eina-svarstykliu-zenklu

ok. godz. 21.15

Kamil Cieślik (*1991)
Opowieści Fontanny Heweliusza (2016) na carillon, elektronikę i Fontannę Heweliusza

URTĖ KRUTKEVIČIŪTĖ  

born in 2007, Lithuania, Klaipėda. Her interest in music formed from an early age, varying from piano studies, vocal lessons in choir and ensemble classes to musical reviews and folklore music analysis. Urtė’s carillon journey started in 2022 Autum when the first session of “Atrask Karilioną” (Discover the carillon) program began, together with her mentor Monika Kazmierczak. For Urtė, this program is the perfect place to broaden her musical horizons, find new, exciting instruments and incorporate her other artistic interests while making arrangement pieces.
Urtė is confident that her path in life and further studies will still be tied to music. The carillon instrument is a tool that helps her keep and grow the love for music while also gaining musical theory and practical knowledge.

VILIUS ALEINIKOVAS   

(b. 2006) began his musical studies at the age of five at the Eduardas Balsys Gymnasium of Arts in Klaipėda, later continuing at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts, where he studied choral and orchestral conducting with Ricardas Šumila and Professor Martynas Staškus. He is a laureate of several national conducting competitions and made his debut in 2023 with the school’s symphony orchestra at the Palanga Kurhaus. In 2025, he was admitted to the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre to continue his orchestral conducting studies. In addition to conducting, he has also received recognition as a pianist and singer, and maintains a strong interest in science, visual art, and musical instrument craftsmanship.

IGNAS VYDEIKA  

is a third-year saxophone student at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater in Vilnius. He has been playing the carillon since 2019. He has also been a student at the Royal Carillon School “Jeff Denyn” since 2023. During this time, he has participated in many festivals, including last year’s Gdańsk Carillon Festival. He is currently studying carillon playing with Monika Kazmierczak and Eddy Mariën.

WITOLD MACIAK  

harpsichordist, composer, student of State Music School in Warsaw and the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen (Belgium). He developed his carillon playing skills during lessons and courses in Poland and abroad (Eddy Mariën, Monika Kazmierczak, Rien Donkersloot, Boudewijn Zwart). Witold is interested in combining the worlds of old and new music, eagerly using electronic and historical instruments and exploring it in terms of microtonal phenomena.

ZUZANNA PODOLAK  

a graduate of secondary music school in violin specialty and the Archdiocesan Institute of Sacred Music in Przemyśl.
She is currently studying psychology and church music.
She is a laureate of an M. K. Čiurlionis’s arrangement competition, which was held at the Academy of Music in Gdansk in November 2024. The arrangement selected in the competition, as well as other arrangements by her, are played on daily basis by the automatic carillon of the Main Town Hall in Gdansk.

ARTUR SAMUL  

a graduate of Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk in composition, solo singing and harpsichord. During his harpsichord studies he also learned to play carillon, and during workshops and by his own he learned to compose and arrange pieces for the carillon.
He is the author of compositions and arrangements played by the automatic carillon of the Main Town Hall in Gdansk, including arrangements of works by M. K. Čiurlionis which were selected in a composition contest in 2024.

is a city carillonist of Gdańsk. She is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk (Theory of Music, Church Music, Choir Conducting) and the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort (studies with Arie Abbenes and Bernard Winsemius). During her studies, she received several scholarships. She teaches carillon and other subjects at the Music Academy in Gdansk. Monika is a laureate of several international carillon competitions and a finalist of the 2008 Queen Fabiola competition. As a performer, she is internationally in demand, playing concerts in different countries. She collaborates on creative projects such as performing solo recitals for the acclaimed early music festival Actus Humanus in Gdańsk, premiering and recording pieces by leading Polish composers for Polish Music Editions, and performing regularly with tower trumpeters and top Gdańsk jazz players.
Monika is the founder and director of ongoing musical initiatives such as the Gdańsk Carillon Festival. Since 2012, Monika has held a doctor of arts degree, specialising in carillon playing. She is also active in Polish Carillon Society. In 2021, Monika was awarded the highest cultural prize in her city: Splendor Gedanensis and received the bronze medal for merit to culture – Gloria Artis. In 2022 her solo album, Contemporary Carillon, released by Polish Music Editions (Anaklasis series), was nominated for the most prestigious musical award in Poland – the Fryderyk Award.

Photo by Romualdas Budriunas

LORETA NARVILAITĖ 

“Loreta Narvilaitė is currently found among the most prolific women composers in Lithuania – one of those who managed not to lock themselves within the world of “fragile lyricism,” but rather escaped it to write compositions full of action and energy. She is very fast to express her thoughts, thus implementing numerous creative undertakings each year.” (Austė Nakienė)

Loreta Narvilaitė (b.1965) studied at the Klaipėda Stasys Šimkus Conservatoire, also taking lessons in composition. She continued her composition studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre under Prof. Julius Juzeliūnas, from which she graduated in 1989 and finished her assistantship period in 1996.
Since 1989 she works as lecturer at the Klaipėda Stasys Šimkus Conservatoire, where now she teaches composition, Lithuanian music history and contemporary music history.
She has been member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union since 1992. She received a State scholarship in 1995, 1998, 2004, 2010 and 2020.
Loreta Narvilaitė has been active as a manager and promoter of contemporary music for many years. In 1994, she organised the first new music festival Dune in Klaipėda and remained as its artistic director for five subsequent years. She has also assisted the organisers of new music festival Claviers of the Sea in Klaipėda.
In 2004, she was the artistic director of the Music Returns festival, inaugurating the Klaipėda Concert Hall (KCH). Next year she was appointed Deputy director for culture and Artistic director of the festivals organised by the Klaipėda Concert Hall, including Music of Changes, Salve Musica, Klaipėda Music Spring and Klaipėda Carillon Festival. She worked at Klaipeda Concert Hall until January 2024.
In February of 2002 and June of 2003 and 2004 she was composer-in-residence at the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), conducted seminars on her and Lithuanian music at the Gotland School of Music Composition. In November – December 2024 she is composer-in-residence at AIR – ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Niederösterreich (Austria).
L. Narvilaitė’s works have been performed at many festivals in Lithuania and abroad, including Pianissimo (Sofia, Bulgaria), Arsenals, the 12th International Contemporary Music Festival (Riga, Latvia) Youth Music Forum, Season Premieres (Kiev, Ukraine), Festival Alexandre Paley et ses amis (Moulin d’Andé, France), Gdansk Carillon Festival (Poland), The festival Glasperlenspiel (Tartu, Estonia), aswell in Lithuanian festivals: Sounds of Sweden, Vilnius Festival, Vilnius Piano Festival, Lithuanian Music Spring, Gaida, Young Music, 6th Drums and Percussion Festival, E.Grieg and M.K. Čiurlionis Music Festival, Pažaislis Music Festival, Kaunas Carillon Festival, Festival From up close, Klaipėda Festival, Klaipėda Music Spring, Dune, Music Returns, Music of Changes, Klaipėda Carillon Festival, Curonian Split Festival, Thomas Mann Festival, Youth Chamber Music Days / Druskomanija, Summer of Organ, Ukmergė Percussion and others.
Narvilaitė’s works have also been performed in concerts in Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, Slovenia, Croatia, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Argentina and elsewhere.
A number of L. Narvilaitė’s compositions have been recorded and featured in various CD releases. Her scores have been published by the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre. Her diverse activities also include writing articles for the Lithuanian press and various websites.

is a Toruń-based composer, initiator and organizer of many cultural events and artistic educational projects. She composes solo, chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, which are performed at many festivals and concerts in cities of the region, Poland and Europe, including Klaipeda, Gotland, Switzerland, Hungary, Ukraine, Holland, Belgium, as well as in the United States and Brazil. She has composed for the City of Toruń, the Pomeranian Music Society, the Music School Complex in Toruń, the Pomeranian Philharmonic, Multicamerata and the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her works have also been performed by Gotlands Blassarkvintett, Hevelius Brass, Copernicus Brass, Cappella Bydgostiensis, Latvian National Orchestra, International Symphony Orchestra “Probaltica”, Cappella Gedanensis, Norddeutche Sinfonietta, Zielona Gora Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra ‘Amadeus’, Choir “Astrolabium” and Sepia Ensemble, among others. The composer has worked with many conductors, including Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk, Jerzy Swoboda, Jose Maria Florencio, Mariusz Smolij, Jerzy Salwarowski, Kazimierz Kryza, Zygmunt Rychert, Modestas Pitrenas, Ruben Silva, Rafal Klocko, Pawel Przytocki, and Agnieszka Duczmal. The most important works in her oeuvre seem to be vocal and instrumental compositions with themes related to the culture and history of Toruń, such as. “Sinfonietta flisacza”, “Uwertura Toruńska”, “Jarmark Katarzyński”, “Incorporation cantata in honor of the homage of Toruń 1454” to the words of King Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, in which, in addition to the choir and orchestra, she used the sound of the great medieval bell Tuba Dei, “Cantata in honor of the Second Peace of Toruń 1466”, „Oratorium on the life of Bl. Fr. Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski“ or a puppet opera for the youngest, ”Tuba Dei and the Angels.” During premieres, she sometimes appears as a conductor.