On 14 May, the opening concert of the Shalom Culture & Music Festival will take place at St Catherine's Church in Vilnius. The event will feature performances by Jerusalem-based singer Israel Roytman, opera soloists Giedrė Kisieliūtė (soprano) and Joris Rubinov (bass) and singer Karolina Mint.

The concert programme will feature famous Jewish folk melodies and works by Lithuanian, Israeli and American composers, performed by a joint Lithuanian-Ukrainian music professional ensemble - Yevgenii Musijets (bayan, Ukraine), Darius Mažintas (piano), Miglė Sakavičiūtė (harp), Paulius Berūkštis (keyboards, flute), Davit Avetisyan (saxophones, bagpipes), Marius Sakavičius (cello), Tadas Daujotas (shofar) and Mihail Novikov (drums). Arrangements for this concert have been specially written by the Israeli composer David Sebba and the renowned Lithuanian jazz musician, composer and arranger Leonardas Pilkauskas.

"It is symbolic that the opening concert of the festival takes place on the day when the State of Israel celebrates the 76th anniversary of its independence, because with this event we want to support the State of Israel fighting against terrorists and express solidarity with the Jewish people," Tadas Daujotas, the head of the public institution "Prabudimo Orkestras", shares his thoughts.

The festival will take place from May to October and will visit 11 Lithuanian cities and towns. The Shalom Culture & Music Festival will take place over almost half a year and will feature classical and contemporary composers, klezmer melodies, jazz improvisations, exhibitions and artistic actions. Musicians and singers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Germany and Israel will participate in the festival. The festival is currently scheduled to host over 20 concerts, which will take place in the concert halls of Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai and Palanga, the Old Zapyškis Church, the synagogues of Alytus, Joniškis, Kėdainiai, Pakruojis and Žiežmari and the Telšiai Yeshiva.

The festival is partially financed by the Municipality of Vilnius City, the Municipality of Kaunas, the Department of National Minorities at the Ministry of the People's Dependency of the Republic of Lithuania, Wix.com, and by private sponsors. Information partner LRT.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Israel Roytman is a singer of psalms, Klezmer, Hebrew folk and contemporary songs, who has released more than ten albums. He has visited more than 30 countries around the world, including Lithuania, participated in many conferences and conducted seminars on Israel. He has been active in the social life of Jerusalem, helping Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. The Roytman family repatriated from Ukraine to Israel in 1994 and has lived in Jerusalem since 2003. Together with his wife Dina, they have 2 daughters, Gila and Sarita.

Giedrė Kisieliūtė is a lyric soprano, a young opera singer. She started her musical career after joining the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, majoring in classical singing. After her bachelor's studies, she went for a year to Italy, the birthplace of opera, to study at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence (singing class of Maestra D. Debolini). After returning from Italy, she continued her studies in Lithuania and in 2023 she completed her Master's studies at the LAMT in opera performance (singing class of Assoc.Prof. S. Šerytė). The soprano continues to actively develop his skills in master classes and works with such professionals as S. Gohritz (Germany), E. Montvidas (Lithuania, UK), L. de Lisi (Italy), J. Gringytė (Lithuania), Constance Fee (USA) and others. She performs as a soloist, takes part in opera productions and performs chamber-vocal music in concerts and festivals.

Joris Rubinov is an opera soloist of the young generation, bass. He studied music at the J.Naujalis Music Gymnasium, sang in the boys' choir "Varpelis", and graduated from the Juozas Gruodis Conservatoire in 2015 (B. Sodaitytė). Immediately afterwards she went to Hamburg, Germany for further music studies. In 2022, he completed his singing studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with professors C. James and M. Tucker. Since 2021, Joris Rubinov has created 15 roles in operas, operettas and musicals at the Kaunas State Musical Theatre and the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Joris is passionate about his Jewish identity and enjoys taking part in Jewish music projects and is preparing a special programme for the Shalom Culture & Music Festival.

Karolina Mint (Karolina Kieraitė) is an Indie Worship singer and contemporary music composer, who graduated with a Master's Degree in Composition from the Lomonosov Moscow State Academy of Performing Arts (LMTA) in 2023. In 2021 Karolina released her debut album "Praminti", produced by famous Lithuanian jazz musicians Domas Žeromskas and Jonas Gliaudelis. In 2022, her composition "Has a house" won 3rd place in the Vox juventutis choral music competition. Karolina's work is very delicate, and she likes to experiment and look for new forms.