Started as a way to show listeners what happens in the museum’s bell tower when the carillon bells ring, over a decade the festival has become a kind of creative laboratory – here the carillon has played classical, folk, popular, or film music, carillonneurs from various countries around the world have visited Kaunas, and last year even circus acrobats performed.
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“We want to remind people what a special instrument we have in Kaunas and invite them to get to know it more closely. So this year the festival will be exceptional both in scope and program: on the occasion of the anniversary, listeners can symbolically expect as many as 10 concerts united by the idea of ‘Carillon+’ – the carillon meeting other instruments, such as saxophone and harp, voice or electronics,” says the festival organizer and host Austėja Staniunaitytė-Proietta.
Unexpected duets and a performance conducted by the wind
The festival will open on September 5 at 1 p.m. with a carillon and harp duet – one of Belgium’s most famous carillonneurs Koen van Assche and harpist Viktorija Smailytė, who have prepared a lyrical music program for this occasion. By the way, the Belgian musician will also take the stage at 3:45 p.m., giving a solo performance to the Kaunas audience.
At 2 p.m., in the concert “Overtones of Silence: Secrets of Laments,” carillonneur Roberta Daugėlaitė, Italian violinist Christian Frattima, and Japanese soprano Yo Otahara will invite listeners on a journey through different periods – from Baroque music and folk songs of various nations to the works of 20th-century composers.
On the same day at 3 p.m., maestro Giedrius Kuprevičius, who has a special connection with the Kaunas carillon, will perform. Together with the young generation carillonneur and saxophonist Ignas Vydeika, he will perform his piece “Bolero Sax Carillon,” which was last heard in Kaunas thirty years ago.
On Saturday evening at 9 p.m., the audience will also experience one of the most ambitious projects in the festival’s history – a special audiovisual performance where the music of Lithuanian and Polish carillonneurs, nature, and technology will merge into one spectacle. A membrane lifted into the air will move with the wind and become a screen for projections created by artists from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts.
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From the sounds of Kaunas city to album premieres
The second day of the festival will begin at 12:10 p.m. with Polish flutist Katarzyna Czubek and carillonneur Anna Kasprzycka, whose concert will blend 17th-century music with electronics and recorded sounds of the city of Kaunas.
At 1:10 p.m., the duo of Ignas Vydeika and Witold Maciak from Poland will explore unexpected harmonies between saxophone and carillon, and the Kaunas audience will also be surprised by a piece performed on the carillon with four hands.
Also appearing will be the well-known Polish carillonneur Monika Kaźmierczak and jazz trumpeter Emilis Miszkas. At 4 p.m., their concert “Shapes of Water” will interpret the sound of carillon and trumpet as a musical representation of the water element – constantly changing, lively, and unpredictable.
On Sunday, listeners will hear two Lithuanian album premieres. At 5 p.m., Marius Šinkūnas will present “Dialogues of Silence” – the first jazz vibraphone album in Lithuanian music history, which will be performed in the Vytautas the Great War Museum garden with guitar and birbynė pipes. And at 6 p.m., the festival will close with electronic music creator Arnis Aleinikovas (SINUO), performing pieces from his album “Reverie” together with Roberta Daugėlaitė.
All festival events are free of charge.
