Within the Net of the 14th Gaida

From October 14 to November 3, the Gaida Festival will deliver its 14th edition of orchestral, jazz, choral, and chamber performances, as well as 4 musical theatre productions. Included in its programme of 13 concerts are 18 Lithuanian premieres, and 24 world premieres of new works commissioned by the festival.

This year Gaida excels in presenting musical theatre outside the traditional opera environment: 4 Lithuanian premieres of chamber operas, under the banner "Music and Theatre". The title role goes to the festival's largest commission - Make-up Opera - produced by composer Antanas Kučinskas, and writer, actor and director Birutė Mar. Two other stageworks by Lithuanian composers - Vykintas Baltakas' Cantio (2004) and Gintaras Sodeika's Solitude for Two (2003) - first appeared at the Munich Biennale, and at the Les Boréales festival in France. All 3 operas were produced in close collaboration with the Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre (Koršunovas also directs the 2 latter works).

The American brand of musical theatre will be presented by Robert Ashley, a pioneer of opera-for-television, internationally acknowledged for his work in new forms of opera and multi-disciplinary projects. Gaida is pleased to host his most recent opera, Celestial Excursions, commissioned for the MaerzMusik festival in Berlin in 2003.

Gaida invited Luca Francesconi as its guest composer in 2003. This year it introduces Michael Gordon (USA), who infuses composition with the intensity and power of rock music and adds another dimension to the concert experience.

In its three symphonic music programmes, the festival presents the Lithuanian National Symphony and the Lithuanian State Symphony orchestras with a mostly new repertoire that is intriguing, challenging, raucous and boundary-blasting.

Gaida 2004 has lured the sharks of contemporary performance - Irvine Arditti, Mike Svoboda, Pedro Carneiro, Saskia Laroo - into the nets of Lithuanian composers, improvisers and performers, thereby bringing figures of international repute together with the emerging creativity and young talent of Lithuania.

Want to experience something new?

Lithuanian Music Link No. 9