Giedrė’s new song will be heard in Dzūkija this weekend. The summer season opening concert, taking place on June 6 in Varėna’s Dainų slėnis (Song Valley), will be the first where the song will be performed live.
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Varėna’s Dainų slėnis (Song Valley) brings back many beautiful memories for Giedrė – she will not be performing here for the first time; it was once the venue for the music festival “Tamsta”.
Now Varėna plunges into summer to the rhythm of nature. This year, the summer welcoming festival, moved to Dainų slėnis (Song Valley), is dedicated to water – a symbol of life and renewal. City guests are invited to nature hikes, educational activities, film screenings, water entertainment, gastronomic experiences, and, of course, music. Along with Giedrė, FC Baseball and “Ministry of Echology” will perform on the festival stage.
Summer is an active time for Giedrė. However, when she finds a free moment, she prepares an escape plan to a place where there are more pine trees than people.
“After the city noise, after concerts and festivals, I least want people, more – forests, lakes, seas, nature, and peace,” she says, adding that she used to enjoy camping with her family, sleeping under the stars. She even had her own spots – by the Merkys, by the Šalčia.
“What a paradox – we forget our beloved places, burdened with homes, possessions, homesteads. And when we have everything, it seems we again long for what we started with. What an exotic feeling to return to the beginning, to nature, to regain our essence, to return home,” says the singer.
Giedrė hopes that her youth’s picnic gear in the basement hasn’t molded yet – it would be wonderful to pull them out and go on a nature hike with her husband Domas.
And if the hike doesn’t work out, Domas’s parents’ homestead always saves the day.
“I like both picking berries and mushrooms. I go to the forest with my mother-in-law; she knows where mushrooms grow. She always tells me: ‘You pick here, there are mushrooms here, and I’ll look over there.’ But, strangely, my basket usually remains empty, while she comes back with a full one,” she laughs, immediately joking that she can’t be let into the forest alone – turn her around three times, and she definitely won’t find her way back.
This year’s theme for Varėna’s summer tourism season opening celebration – water – is also close to Giedrė’s heart.
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“Right now, I’m thinking a lot about it; there’s no song yet, but a few lines about eye-lakes where clouds graze are already swirling in my head. By the way, the theme of lakes has already appeared in songs many times. And it will definitely appear again,” promises the singer.
Giedrė is convinced that an equality sign can be placed between creativity and nature. If she weren’t singing, she would still be creating something. Most likely – gardens or flowerbeds.
“But you have to do it while you’re young, later it’s hard, your back hurts,” she laughs and jokes that before she became such a popular singer, she gladly took care of her garden. But now, with her husband, she only has a few bushes and a lawnmower.
“Everything requires time and resources if you want to realize yourself one hundred percent,” the singer is convinced.
Nature today, like people, their gazes, the situations they experience, unresolved problems, becomes the inspiration for her creativity. She says she puts all this into a collage, hides it in a creative storeroom, and waits for the right time. This is how the cycle of creativity happens – from the street – to home, from home – to the street, to people, to listeners.
The meeting of nature sounds and music under the open sky in Varėna’s Dainų slėnis (Song Valley) will begin on June 6 at 1 PM with a performance by accordionists from Varėna’s Jadvyga Čiurlionytė School of Arts. From 7:30 PM, a free concert by Klaudijus Marinas and Orestas, the group “Ministry of Echology”, artists FC Baseball and Giedrė Kilčiauskienė will take place here.
Varėna Summer Festival “Dive into Summer to the Rhythm of Nature” – June 6–7. Full program – https://www.varenavisit.lt/lt
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