It took almost two years of intense exchange of ideas and negotiations between the Canadian ERGO Projects and a number of Lithuanian composers and festival organisers to shape the two-year collaborative project, which is due to start in the beginning of November. An association for the promotion of contemporary music and its related art forms in Canada and abroad, ERGO Projects has already organised similar events in connection with Finnish composers in 2002.
This particular project - Celebrating the Changing of the Seasons: ERGO Lithuania-Canada Exchange 2004-2005 - is in four parts, following the 'transition' of seasonal changes as a theme. Part one - "Autumn Passing" - takes place in Toronto, November 2-6, 2004, also extending into the "Iš arti" international contemporary music festival in Kaunas, November 12-17.
"Autumn Passing", is a collaboration with The Music Gallery, Toronto, with panel discussions, lectures and receptions hosted and presented by the Canadian Music Centre, Toronto. Featured Lithuanian composers - Vytautas Germanavičius, Šarūnas Nakas, Vidmantas Bartulis and Bronius Kutavičius - will have world premieres of their new works, expressly composed for the ERGO Ensemble, in Toronto (on Nov. 6), with repeat performances at the "Iš arti" festival (on Nov. 16). ERGO Ensemble will include guest musicians - Lithuanian-Canadian violinist Atis Bankas and Alexander Gajic - under guest conductor Alex Pauk of the 'Esprit Orchestra'. The November 6 concert, planned to be broadcast by the CBC, will be followed by a special post-concert reception, with an information booth about Lithuanian contemporary music and composers provided by the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre. ERGO also plans to give repeat performances of Lithuanian works at other festivals within Canada and European countries in the future.
Lithuanian Music Link No. 9