in 2023 April 1 Klaipėda will host the 2nd Youth Mixed Choir Festival “Jaunoji Banga”. Klaipėda city choirs The cultural traditions and events of the “Aukuras” community are well known not only in Lithuania, they also make our city and region famous, and their echoes spread throughout the world. All this is not a random phenomenon, but an experience that remembers deep choral traditions in the city. The origins of these traditions are the meaningful history of Lithuanian song festivals in Lithuania Minor and the Klaipėda region, and not only that. This is an interesting, rich and unique cultural phenomenon, the beginning of which goes back to the much earlier cultural period of this region – the 19th century. the end This is the meaningful activity of the community “Aukuras” at that time – to raise the culture of the nation, well known by the great leaders of this region – Vydūnas, Adams Brakas, Antanas Vaičiūnas, Stasios Šimkaus, Jeronimos Kačinskas and others. cultural, social activities.
Klaipėda city choral community “Aukuras”, which today carries out the continuation and development of choral events in the city and the entire country, is expanding its arsenal of events. In addition to the already traditional prominent choral events – song festivals, the international Stasios Šimkaus choir competition, other less significant and famous events are held in Klaipėda – the Christmas carol festival, the increasingly popular choral music festival – “Song of the Nation”, not to mention the traditional concerts “Our children – For the Motherland of Lithuania”, dedicated to the restoration of the State, February 16, and other events.
The bouquets of these traditional outstanding choral events are joining and meaningfully growing and we hope will become traditional – the festival of youth mixed choirs “JAUNOJI BANGA”. The festival will take place in 2023. April 1 4:00 p.m. in the concert hall of the Klaipėda Faculty of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (K. Donelaičio str. 4, Klaipėda).
The festival will be attended by: the mixed choir of Kaunas Juoz Gruodis Conservatory, artistic director and conductor Vilma Masienė, choirmaster Ramutė Štreimikytė, concertmasters Dalia Jatautaitė and Daiva Maskoliūnienė; mixed youth choir of Kaunas “Saulė” gymnasium, artistic director and conductor Jovita Kulakauskienė; Vilnius Juoz Tallat-Kelpša Conservatory Mixed Choir, artistic director and conductor Renata Gilienė, choirmaster Valerija Skapienė, concertmaster Janina Kalinaitė; Klaipėda Vydūnas Gymnasium Youth Mixed Choir, artistic director and conductor Ingrida Bertulienė, choirmaster Vaiva Šaulienė, concertmaster Romualdas Kalvėnas; Klaipėda Stasios Šimkaus Conservatory Mixed Choir, artistic director and conductor Jolanta Vyšniauskienė, choirmaster Ramūnas Baršauskas, concertmaster Živilė Čapienė; Klaipėda Stasios Šimkaus Conservatory Youth Symphony Orchestra, artistic director Egidijus Miknius.
We hope that this festival will partially fill the vacuum created in Lithuania in the activities of youth choirs. With this choral cultural event, we intend to complement and give meaning to the employment, self-expression, cultural activity and development of young people, to influence their value and artistic-cultural maturity, to develop Lithuanian choral traditions and at the same time to enliven Klaipėda’s concert life.
The initiator of this festival is Klaipėda city choral community “Aukuras”, and the festival’s creator and active organizer is Jolanta Vyšniauskienė, a member of the community council. We sincerely thank her for this.
We hope that this meaningful festival of youth mixed choirs “JAUNOJI BANGA” will grow, become stronger, become a traditional event that decorates and makes the city famous.
Algirdas Šumskis
“Aukuras” of Klaipėda city choral society chairman of the council
