PROGRAM
C. Debussy - String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
M. K. Čiurlionis - String Quartet No. 1
A. Dvořák - String Quintet No. 3, Op. 97

The world press describes the Akilone Quartet, a relatively young quartet that has already won several prestigious competitions and earned the respect of critics, as a quartet of the International Quartet Competition of M. According to its members, this ensemble is the fruit of a musical and human adventure that began in Paris in 2011. From the very beginning, this quartet has been rewarded with the knowledge and special attention of chamber music legends such as Hatto Beyerle, Vladimir Mendelssohn and, nowadays, one of the most renowned professionals and experts in contemporary classical music, Patrick Jüdt. The extremely talented and motivated musicians won the First Grand Prix and the ProQuartet Prize at the 8th Bordeaux International String Quartet Festival in 2016, have gained international recognition and regularly perform in major concert halls in France and abroad, including London's Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Musiekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Munetsugu Hall in Nagoya.
The quartet's performance at the M.K. Čiurlionis International Festival will also be exceptional, with the ensemble being joined by the youngest generation of classical stars from Lithuania, Julija Andersson. The viola player is well known to Lithuanian audiences. She is a laureate of many prestigious national and international competitions, a master's student at the Edsberg Institute of the Royal Stockholm College of Music, a doctoral student and lecturer at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and a regular soloist with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestras of Lithuania, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the St. Kristofors Chamber Orchestra, and other ensembles.
For the Vilnius audience, the Akelone Quartet has chosen an extraordinarily beautiful and sensual programme, including works by C. Debussy, M. K. Čiurlionis and A. Dvořák.

About the performers
What makes the Akelone Quartet exceptional is not only its excellent musicianship, but also the modern verve of its four members and the desire of the quartet to make a distinctly feminine mark in the masculine music world. To this end, violinists Magdalena Geka and Elise De-Bendelac, violist Perrine Guillemot and cellist Lucie Mercat have agreed to collaborate with composer Xu Yi, whose Aquilone Lontano was premiered at the Paris Philharmonic in 2018 to huge acclaim.
In 2023, inspired by her, the quartet took on a new challenge: the performance of Jérôme Désigaud's Parastiches, a composition that combines microtonality and polytempo, with Judith Hamann and the team of the Centre National de la Musique Creation.
This search for new means of expression does not diminish the quartet's desire to delve into the performance of classical pieces. Last year, for example, the musicians travelled to the Czech Republic to better experience the influence of the environment in which the works of their favourite composer, A. Dvořák, were born.
Another unique feature of the Akelone performers is their social responsibility and desire to share their music not only with music lovers, but also with those who are harder to reach, and so they perform in places of detention, for refugees, children, people with disabilities, etc. They are equally sensitive to environmental and consumer issues, are ambassadors of the "Made Local" initiative, and are concerned with the culture of regions far from big cities, and have founded an arts festival in the Occitani region.
First violin Magdalena Geka plays an instrument made by Alessandro Gagliano in 1734, which was generously donated by Anima Music Foundation.

JULIJA ANDERSSON is a young Lithuanian violinist and violist, laureate of prestigious national and international competitions, who regularly performs as a soloist at prestigious festivals and in the largest Lithuanian and European venues.