Darius Vizbaras is a dashing and extremely creative former student of Vilnius College. Darius graduated as a cultural activities manager from Vilnius College and his CV already includes activities such as Director of the Baltic Chamber Opera Theatre, Project Manager of the MfESt Festival of short musicals, and Director of the Opera on the Trolley campaign. It is incredible how much this former student has accomplished. Darius says that young people now live in a completely different world from the one our parents lived in. It is no longer enough to know or understand. It is about creating. And, in his opinion, no matter what profession one chooses, creativity is a very hard and challenging job, but it is necessary. "It is a valuable process and the only thing that can fill a person up completely", he says. The most difficult challenge for young professionals is to understand themselves and to find their support in order to create. After graduating in Cultural Activity Management from Vilnius College, Darius was already working at UAB Infinitm and writing projects for the EU Structural Funds when he received a call from Jonas Sakalauskas. Jonas offered to work with the best performers, creators and educators in the Baltic region to organise chamber operas and concert programmes in the Baltic region. At first Darius was not able to join full time, but he helped to prepare several project proposals. A few months later, when it became clear that the projects had been funded, he was invited to work with them again and this time he accepted. Together they built a systematic opera club community that produced new operas, organised concert programmes, disseminated opera culture and public education on cultural issues, and trained young artists.
Managing the Baltic Chamber Opera Theatre is by no means Darius' only activity. Last spring, the MfESt festival of short musicals was launched in Lithuania. Darius Vizbaras became the director of this project.
This is one small step forward in our efforts to expand our cultural field. "MfESt as a platform has worked very well. The team brought together 6 groups of creators who started the search for a Lithuanian musical. Darius believes that it is crucial for us to understand our cultural background and to look for authentic forms through which to express our being. Lithuania's cultural heritage opens up incredibly wide possibilities for creativity. All we need to do is to look for new forms and talents. The Short Musicals Festival is the result of such a search.
Looking at the work of Darius and the people who work with him, it seems that they are always trying to be ahead of the curve, to be pioneers and to lead the way... In a speech, Tim Michin, the famous Australian actor, writer, and composer, has said: "Don't try to feel life, fill it up". This is the approach Darius takes. He says that we should all strive to fill our lives, not ask or wait for others to do it. This is why he creates new cultural phenomena and constantly experiments. At the moment, he is working on a mobile application "Hotspot Music" together with Andrius Užusietis, the director of BeProblemu.lt, and Gintautas Sadauskas, the director of this project. This application creates music by identifying the user's location and movement route. In this way, personal soundtracks are created to give people the best experience and emotional connection to cultural objects in different cities. What is the point? Forecasts predict that by 2030, the number of people travelling annually in Europe alone will reach one billion. When people arrive in a foreign country, they often face language barriers. It prevents them from experiencing the culture and understanding the history of the country first-hand, which is why we are telling the story of the country in a language that the whole world can understand - music. Darius believes that this mobile app will significantly change the perception of tourism. The first thing we want to do is to showcase this app to Lithuanian tourists. In fact, the idea is already finding resonance in foreign countries, which could open up more opportunities for its export and dissemination across Europe and beyond. The whole team hopes that Lithuania will be the first country where this app will be supported and initially evaluated.
While studying at Vilnius College, Darius went on an international Erasmus exchange programme to the Netherlands' Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Lithuania still lacks many things, which means that there are many untapped opportunities, undiscovered and unfilled niches that can be conquered. There are all the conditions to create a job for yourself, to invent a new activity or even a profession. There are many talented and creative people in our country. So, my friends, let us follow the motto of Darius Vizbars: "create, create and create again".
