“Avanti”, a festival that surprises its visitors with unique concerts every year, invites you to experience much more than just high-level chamber music this year. Organised for the thirteenth time by Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Chamber Orchestra and festival director Rita Bieliauskaite, the festival reacts to the current social and artistic trends.

Exclusive focus on female creators

This year's festival offers a free opportunity to listen to the most impressive music composed by Lithuanian female composers, instrumental and vocal opuses, and brings back trends of interdisciplinary arts. With geniuses and innovators in the performing and visual arts often choosing live musical accompaniment for their work, “Avanti” invites you to experience concerts where the music itself is enriched by dance, contemporary circus performers, light art, and unique visual stage solutions. 

From the 28th of September to the 24th of October, Kaunas city will host eight concerts featuring a wide range of professional performers from Lithuania and abroad. Six performances have been created especially for the festival, including dance, contemporary circus performances, and premieres of music programs that “Avanti” visitors will be the first to hear. 

The opening evening of the festival, which will take place on the 28th of September at the VMU Great Hall, will be dedicated to the work of the National Prize for Culture and Art laureates Raminta Šerkšnytė, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, and Zita Bružaitė. The first “Avanti” concert will be performed by the VMU Chamber Orchestra with conductor Vytautas Lukočius and cello soloist Mindaugas Bačkus.

On the 3rd of October, listeners gathered at the Kaunas State Philharmonic will hear "Gourmet Discoveries" prepared especially for “Avanti”, featuring music by Lithuanian composer Feliksas Bajoras and other foreign composers. One of the works, “Les Illuminations” by Benjamin Britten, requires an exceptional performance technique and will be performed by the award-winning Latvian-born opera singer Gunta Gelgotė together with the VMU Chamber Orchestra and the conductor Robertas Šervenikas.

On the 6th of October, the nations will unite in "Discoveries", where works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Victoria Poleva, Franz Schubert and Algirdas Martinaitis will be performed by one of Ukraine's most talented young violinists, Myroslava Kotorovych, and the wonderful Lithuanian pianist Milda Umbrusevičiūtė. 

Combining music and dance

For three evenings in October, chamber music virtuosos and masters of movement will join forces. On the 12th of October, in the Great Hall of the VMU, alongside soloists Dalia Simaška (violin) and Laimonas Salijus (accordion), Brigita and Carlos Rodriguez will dance to the rhythm of Argentinian tango and so much more; this innovative performance will feature works from Mikołaj Majkusiak, Giacomo Puccine, César Franck, Astor Piazzolla, and Eduardas Balsys. 

In the same venue on the 17th of October, soloists Laimonas Salijus and cellist Vytenis Pocius will perform works by Ilkka Kuusisto, Anatolijus Šenderovas, Enrique Granada and Mikołaj Majkusiak. They will be accompanied by contemporary circus performers. Professionals Džiugas Kunsmanas and Evan Joseph Cohn (USA), students at prestigious contemporary circus schools, will use their bodies to visualise the virtuosic concert music.

An innovative interpretation of A. Vivaldi's work

For those who are looking for more of a traditional chamber music concert, “Avanti” offers two programs in the second month of autumn. On the 10th of October in the Great Hall of VMU, the “Meta Piano Trio” will perform especially for this festival created program, “Music (Not) Heard”. On the 19th of October, the same venue will be filled with music from the program “Tolimi – Artimi” performed by the Kaunas String Quartet and featuring works by Giedrius Kuprevičius and Robert Schumman (together with a pianist from Ukraine, Artur Shutov).

An exclusive closing of this year's “Avanti” festival will take place on the 24th of October. The chamber music and dance performance "Four Seasons" will be presented by the Šeiko Dance Theatre, which has been successfully working together with the Klaipėda Cello Quartet for many years. Antonio Vivaldi's famous work will be performed in the “Manborė” event venue, where for the first time the “Avanti” festival time will present a unique feast not only for the ears but also for the eyes – in the “Four Seasons”, the music loved by all will be enriched with the choreography and the art of light.

The event will be a special experience for the audience, who will not only have the opportunity to see the innovative use of light technology but will also be able to feel like equal partners with the performers; guests watching the performance will be invited to surround the artists dancing in the middle of the hall from all sides. 

In a world divided by political or social views and personal tastes, the VMU Chamber Orchestra invites you to seek values that unite us and create together. For those who do not know how to achieve this, please come and see the results of “Avanti” – all the festival events in Kaunas are free of charge, with no additional conditions.