For two and a half years, Klaipėda Concert Hall has been managed by Tadas Grabys, who has been a journalist, TV presenter and producer in many well-known projects. According to him, this half-term period in the port city is very intense, interesting, full of challenges and results that make the whole team proud.
– You returned to the seaside after many years spent in the capital, where life revolved around radically different topics: the most important events in Lithuania and the world, interviews with the most influential people in the country. Now there might be those who would say that your horizons have narrowed down to the port city and one concert hall.
T. Grabys: I would not agree with the statement – it narrowed. On the contrary, before I could only be the one who talks to the decision-makers, now I am myself. I am interested in the processes and decisions taking place in a public sector institution, the initiator and executor of which I can become. Here I have a unique opportunity to apply the accumulated experience in the modernization of a cultural institution. Of course, this is a very different process than the management experience I have had so far in private sector companies, but I am helped by mine super team. I am on this journey with the entire KKS team, as many as 90 of them. Having such a backing makes me feel confident about the implementation of ideas, plans and dreams. By the way, it is the largest cultural institution of Klaipėda municipality.
– What are those dreams?
T. Grabys: This spring, together with the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director Mindaugas Bačkums, we expanded the boundaries of the Klaipėda concert hall by organizing classical music concerts in unexpected spaces for both ourselves and the listeners. We have already met them at the hotel during lunch, at the Directorate of the Klaipėda State Seaport, with plans to invite them to a night date at the Maritime Museum – this is how KKS becomes a concert hall for the whole port city, where Klaipėda people create for Klaipėda people. I dream that KKS will become a stage of professional art not only for the port city, but for the whole of Lithuania.
– Ambitious plan.
T. Grabys: And why not? Our team is as strong as ever and we continue to grow stronger every day. We optimize and digitize internal processes. We are open to international projects and cooperation. I can see that the internal changes that have taken place have also been appreciated by the listeners, who open the doors of the concert hall more and more often, and there is definitely something to listen to here. The performers of our repertoire are the best or on their way to it: Grammy winners Third Coast Percussion (USA), one of the ten best choirs in the world – Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and participants of the Klaipėda International Cello Festival – Raphael Wallfish from Great Britain, French Jérôme Pernoo, David Geringas, who has roots in Lithuania. Internationality will only increase, it is one of my priorities. I want not only Lithuanian creators and emerging talents to find a place on the KKS stage, but also foreign performers. We will soon be heading to the world’s largest gathering of professionals in the classical and art music sector, Classical: NEXT. The cello competition organized by our institution is now an official candidate to become a member of the Union of European Youth Music Competitions. We are preparing and waiting for 2025. of the upcoming tender, which will be attended by union assessors and will make the final decision. I have no doubt that involvement in the activities of these organizations will significantly change the image of the hall not only in Lithuania, but also in the international community, and will influence the improving quality of the repertoire.
In general, these few years in the chair of the manager of the Klaipėda concert hall proved to me that classical music is for everyone. Even for those who are sure they don’t understand classical music. I want to destroy stereotypes that this music is not for everyone, we just all understand it differently and here we find something that can be very close and acceptable. I would like faster solutions, but I understand that this is impossible for many reasons, the main one of which is planning the repertoire two years ahead.
– It seems that the already implemented ambitious plans and the support of the team inspire further changes.
T. Grabys: I want the Klaipėda concert hall to be not only a place where musicians gather to play for themselves, but a space where every music lover can find their own note, regardless of what style of music they listen to. Therefore, this is not only a house of classical music, but also a space that meets modern needs, which allows you to stop at least for a moment and listen to the best of what Klaipėda has to offer. We aim to respond to the needs of the listeners, and we also focus on the young audience. We are changing and it is not only us who see it, but also others. Two years ago, for the first time in the institution’s history, we presented the entire half-year repertoire. We have changed the outer clothing of KKS, presenting a new visual identity, because today it is not enough for an institution to have a logo alone. In order to properly represent activities and values in different media, and especially in social networks, visual identity is extremely important. The results today speak for themselves: updated image, changed line of communication, variety of social networks, professional music lovers are reached once every six months by a repertoire book that has started to be published. All this results in a steadily growing number of visitors every year, an expanding geography of visiting artists, and an ever-increasing opportunity for our own tours – to travel further and more often, thus spreading the name of the city far beyond its borders. The KKS collective has just returned from Spain, where it has already become a resident orchestra at the “Alborada Clásica” festival, and concerts in Italy await this year. Professional mixed choir “Aukuras” rises like a phoenix from the ashes. I do not regret the decision to invite Tomás Ambrozaitis to the post of art director. Thanks to him, the collective returns to the elite of Lithuanian choirs. For the first time in decades of activity, concert halls went on tour abroad brass a quintet that wonderfully represented the institution and Klaipėda in the Czech city of Liberec during the celebration of the 16th of February.
– There are many plans and dreams, there are still two and a half years left until the end of the term. Will you make it?
T. Grabys: The less time, the more creatures, because there is simply no time to sit and wait for inspiration. You create that inspiration because you know the goal – KKS can become a center of attraction towards the port city. Therefore, cooperation with other Klaipėda cultural institutions, arts cooperation, which would once again promote the city, where you want to come and stay here with good music, are in the plans. I am happy with the opportunity given to me, I am dedicated one hundred percent to what I am doing, where I am now. I hope others will appreciate it, not necessarily now. The benefits of some changes take time to see, as they say, to let some water flow.
Klaipėda concert hall information
KKS photo.
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– 2024-04-02 03:06:33
