12th INTERNATIONAL SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL AND MASTER CLASSES

July 28 – August 2, 2024, Vilnius, Lithuania. At the prestigious National M. K. Ciurlionis Art School. Kosciuskos street 11, Vilnius.

Students Arrival - by Sunday, July 28, 2024

Students Departure - Saturday, August 3, 2024

Students are required to arrive by July 28, 2024, and be present at the Opening Concert on Sunday, July 31 at 5 PM. Master Classes will start Monday - Friday. Students are required to be available until Friday August 2, including Friday. Last Concert will be Friday August 2, 2024. Students can leave Saturday, August 3 or any day after that independently.

CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERTS - Vilnius Town Hall

Concert schedule and program will be announced soon.

Opening Concert is scheduled for Sunday, July 28, 5pm at the VILNIUS TOWN HALL.

Other Concerts :

Tuesday, July 30, at the VILNIUS TOWN HALL

Wednesday, July 31, at the VILNIUS TOWN HALL

Thursday, August 1, at 6 PM, at Samuel Bak Museum

Friday, August 2, at 6 PM at Samuel Bak Museum

Closing Concert is scheduled for Friday, August 2, 6 pm at Samuel Bak Museum

FREE ADMISSION TO THE EVENTS AT THE SAMUEL BAK MUSEUM.

ADMISSION WITH TICKETS TO THE EVENTS AT VILNIUS TOWN HALL.

 

INTERNATIONAL MASTER CLASSES - July 29 - August 2, 2024

For violin, guitar and piano students (12 – 28 years old), solo, daily master classes will take place at the National M. K .Ciurlionis Art School live (in person). There will be chamber music master classes offered for pre - formed groups and students who would like to form a group during the festival.

VIOLIN master classes: July 29- August 2 . Violinist Markus Placci (USA - Italy ).

PIANO master classes: July 29 - August 2. Pianist Petras Geniusas (Lithuania).

GUITAR master classes: July 29, July 31, August 1-2. Guitarist Adriano Del Sal (Italy).

CHAMBER MUSIC - with all the faculty.

We only accept a handful students due to limited space.

This year we will offer spaces to 10 gifted violinists and 10 gifted pianists from all over the world, and 8 cellists. Students will receive 2 individual (private) lessons , each lesson is 1 hour long.  These lesson are open to the public. In addition to 2 lessons, students will receive a STUDIO CLASS, participating with all the students, and will play in a students concerts on Thursday, August 1, and Friday, August 2 2024.

Upon each professor, students might be given additional time, and / or being invited to participate in an open master class.

ALL students will receive Diploma for participation.

There will also be a master class open to all the participants.

Students should prepare at least 2 (two) works for master classes, 3 pieces are preferred. 

One of the pieces should be in a concert shape. Short pieces are required for the final concert. Sonatas or Concerti are not preferred. Violin Students will be given time to rehearse with the pianist Inga Vysniauskaite. Accompanist will be provided for one violin master class, rehearsal, dress rehearsal and concert.

Pianists will be provided with the practice room with pianos.

 

Application deadline for master classes: May 31, 2024.

Registration fee: 50 Euros. Limited number of participants. There is no participation fee after registering and being accepted to the festival. The festival is free and will waive the registration fee for anyone who cannot pay.

 

HISTORY AND GOALS

The Vivace Vilnius International Summer Music Festival was established in 2012 by Lithuanian violinist Egle Jarkova, who currently lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Her goal is to provide opportunities for promising musicians to advance their studies, and to present these young musicians with an experience that offers them their musical growth while creating new connections and lasting memories. The students are from music institutions, high schools, conservatory and music academies. They receive instruction and career guidance from internationally renowned musicians from USA and Europe. These motivated students, who plan to pursue a professional music career, receive free masterclasses and sharpen their performance skills by performing in front of full audiences. Over the last ten years, Vivace Vilnius has attracted over 220 international students from countries such as Albania, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and The United States of America. 

The festival’s mission is to also enliven the summer season in the historic city of Vilnius with world-class performances that are free and accessible to all. The Festival’s distinguished faculty and guest artists, who represent over 20 countries, have performed 87 free admission concerts in historic cultural venues such as Vilnius Town Hall, Lithuanian Art Museum, Museum of Applied Arts and Design, Samuel Bak Museum, and more. Every year festival participants visit Santaros Children Hospital and perform for little patients, nurses and doctors.

Vivace Vilnius festival provides free education from elite music teachers from the US to students in Europe; free and open concerts from critically acclaimed musicians for people in Vilnius who have a deep love and regard for both classical music and highly trained musicians; a cultural exchange of musicians, students and others who use music to bridge a cultural and lingual and medicinal divide to share a common love; promotes classical and Jewish traditions and music; brings doctors and educators to Lithuania to lecture and share papers and clinical expertise on musical therapy.

 

In 2016, musicians of Vivace Vilnius performed at the International Conference “Music and Music Therapy for Child and Adolescent Health”. The conference featured experts in music therapy and music medicine who explored current practices in the U.S. and Lithuania. In 2018, another conference “Music and Health” was organized together with Dr. Lisa M. Wong from Boston, Prof. dr. Eva Bojner Horwitz and Prof. dr. TöresTheorell from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. 2023 summer medical conference will feature Clinical Director Emeritus, Mass. General Cancer Center Dr. Bruce Chabner who will talk about New Developments in Cancer Therapeutics, targeted Drugs and Immunotherapy, and his wife Davi-Ellen Chabner, instructor and author of books about medical language.   

2022 year was not only 10th anniversary, it also held even more significance and  gravitas as the festival reserved and sponsored students fleeing war-torn Ukraine to join in Lithuania.  The festival provided scholarships and an additional stipend for transportation, lodging and food for those Ukrainian students whose lives had been interuppted and afforded them a chance to play and study once again.  

The 11th year was scheduled for July 30- August 5, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. The concerts were held Vilnius Town Hall, Museum of Applied Arts and Design and Samuel Bak Museum. The artists roster for 2023 include the renowned artists such as: Pianists Jonathan Bass (USA), and Petras Geniusas (Lithuania), Violinists Markus Placci (USA/Italy ) and Dalia Kuznecovaite (Lithuania) and cellists Luigi Piovano (Italy) and David Geringas (Lithuania )

Festival collaborates with Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius Town Hall, National M.K.Čiurlionis School of Arts, VGMJH Samuel Bak Museum, Italian Institute of Culture and KHS Boston Scholarship Fund. It is sponsored by individual benefactors from Boston, MA. 

Festival was created and is being managed by violinist Egle Jarkova, whose diverse career in music reflects a deep passion for education, entrepreneurship, and performance. Ms. Jarkova is a graduate of Boston Conservatory, and Boston University, and in addition to maintaining a full teaching studio, she actively performs solo, chamber music and with orchestras in US and in Europe..

  

ACCESSIBLE EDUCATION

Festival’s idea is to provide students free education with internationally known teachers 

and make the concerts free of charge and accessible to wide range of audiences regardless their 

financial ability to visit concerts otherwise.

Facts and Numbers

Since its foundation in 2012, within three years of its growing, the festival had:

  • Over 254 participants (students ranging from 8 – 32 years old, average 18 y/o.)

  • 24 faculty members

  • 87 free of charge concerts

  • 12 outreach concert

  • 18 guest artists

All of the above represented 20 countries: Albania, Japan, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, 

Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of 

America, and Venezuela, and more.

“VIVACE VILNIUS” PRESENTED numerous FREE ADMISSION CONCERTS AT:

Photo by Diana GarbačauskienėCourtesy of "We love Lithuania"

Photo by Diana Garbačauskienė

Courtesy of "We love Lithuania"

  • National M.K.Ciurlionis Art School

  • Vilnius Town Hall

  • Museum of Applied Art

  • Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum

  • Vilnius Picture Gallery

  • Beatrice’s Memorial Museum

  • Santariskes Children Hospital*

* as a part of a presentation about music-medicine intersection made by Dr. Lisa M. Wong.