Music at the old monastery

After the great success and warm reception from the public over the past two years, we are delighted to present the third edition of the festival “Music at the Old Monastery”. This year’s program will once again feature organ music — but not only that! The concerts will also offer exciting musical combinations, including a duo with voice and a trio featuring voice and trombone.

The undisputed star of the festival will once again be the famous neo-baroque Big Blue Organ — already well-known internationally — located in the beautiful and centrally situated historic Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary (Trakų g. 9, Vilnius). The organ will take center stage in two solo concerts performed by distinguished specialists: the renowned Italian maestro from Milan, Enrico Viccardi (May 2nd, with a program of Italian music from the Baroque to the Romantic period), and the celebrated Polish maestro Roman Perucki (May 10th, with a program of Baroque music, presented by popular theatre and TV actress Valda Bičkutė). Both organists are internationally acclaimed performers with rich artistic careers.

We are also proud and excited to present two true “primadonnas” — Ukrainian sopranos Kseniya Bakhritdinova and Nadya Eremenko — each featured in separate concerts.

Kseniya Bakhritdinova is a soloist at the Kyiv Opera Theatre and frequently performs in leading roles at the Vilnius Opera Theatre. In this festival, she will perform in a trio alongside renowned Ukrainian trombonist Dmytro Kravchuk and talented young Lithuanian organist Benas Jonušas (May 9th). This concert will be presented by Julija Karaliūnaitė, a distinguished soprano of the Vilnius Opera Theatre and a mathematics lecturer at Vilnius University.

The other Ukrainian soprano, Nadya Eremenko, will present a concert dedicated to Italian music (May 3rd), performing sacred masterpieces by Puccini, Bellini, Mascagni, Tosti, and Cherubini. She will be accompanied by the festival’s artistic director, Italian organist Gianluigi Spaziani, an expert in Baroque music and organ history. Nadya Eremenko is a soloist at the Opera Theatre of Dnipro and will be performing in Lithuania for the first time.

In short, a festival full of stars and excellent music awaits us!

The festival is supported by:

The Italian Embassy in Vilnius
The Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius
The Polish Institute in Vilnius
Vilnius Center for Culture and Spirituality (Vilniaus Kultūros ir Dvasingumo Centras)
The Ukrainian Center in Vilnius (Ukrainos Centras)
Italian wine producer Carminucci

All concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. Admission is free, but the organizers kindly welcome donations during the concerts to support the restoration of the church’s frescoes and to help cover the performers’ travel expenses.