Event description
CONCERT CYCLE "From St. CHRISTMAS TO THE NEW YEAR"
December 26-31
Performers:
Kaunas Symphonic Orchestra
Conductor Constantine Orbelian (USA), director Algimantas Treikauskas
Kaunas State Choir
Artistic director and chief conductor. Conductor Robertas Šervenikas
We invite you to welcome the New Year in Kaunas State Philharmonic Hall to the sound of cheerful melodies and the most wonderful arias. Two of Kaunas' most distinguished ensembles, the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and Kaunas State Choir, conducted by Maestro Konstantin Obelian, and special guests Kseniya Bakhritdinova, Ukrainian opera star, and Gianluca Littera, Italian virtuoso of the lip-armonica, will create a truly festive atmosphere for you on the last evening of the year.
The talented and promising soloist of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, KSENIYA BAKHRITDINOVA, has been performing successfully in opera houses in Ukraine, Europe, and Asia, as well as in concert halls in Austria, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Finland and Lithuania. She studied solo singing and piano at the Lviv Mykola Lysenko National Academy of Music. Her achievements include 2nd prize at the Minsk International Christmas Singing Competition, 1st prize at the International Singing Competition "Nightingale fair", etc. She has performed such roles as Amelia in Giuseppe Verdi's opera The Masked Ball, Micaela in George Bizet's Carmen, Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Juan, etc.
In this concert, the audience will be amazed by an instrument that is not very common on the Philharmonic stage - the lip armonica, which has been brought to prestigious concert halls by Italian virtuoso GIANLUCA LITTERA. He is one of the few soloists in the world to perform classical, contemporary and jazz music on this instrument. His repertoire includes symphonic and chamber works, compositions by Gordon Jacob, Robert Farnon, Vaughan Williams, William Walton, Luciano Chailly, James Moody and others. Jacobo's Divertissement for armonica and string quartet was one of the highlights of the CD, and in collaboration with the Brazilian composer and conductor Gil Jardim, the armonica virtuoso has developed a Brazilian music project. In 2010, with the Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Littera performed Immobile 2, a new composition for armonica and orchestra written for him by Oscar-winner Ennio Morricone, conducted by the composer himself. Works by these and other composers will also feature in the programme for this New Year's Eve evening.
