6 October 2017, 7pm
Duration: 2 hours
Price: €7,00 - €20,00
Venue: Vilnius Congress Hall (Vilniaus Str. 6-1, Vilnius)
Piano Gintaras Januševičius
Orchestra Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš

PROGRAMME

George Gershwin. Concerto in F Major for Piano and Orchestra
Sergei Prokofiev. Selections from the ballet Romeo and Juliet

***

Born to a musical family, pianist Gintaras Januševičius started piano lessons at the age of 4. The pianist made his stage debut with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra at Vilnius Congress Hall when he was barely 15 and just a week later went on to debut at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. After studying at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre for a year, Gintaras Januševičius moved to Hanover, Germany where his professors were Vladimir Krainev and Bernd Goetzke.

After the pianist's performance at the Montreal International Musical Competition in 2004, Canadian critics wrote: "Gintaras Januševičius glides, like an albatross. We saw him set the keys aglow, with a palette of a thousand shades, but never going beyond the forte. We saw him shake up the rhythms, moving forward, straight as a pin, with the simplicity of the master and the vitality of the young man he is. Never is it used for effect, never does the left hand try to gain the upper hand."  (Christophe Huss, Classics Today, 2004)

Based in Hanover since 2004 Gintaras Januševičius has dedicated a lot of his time to educational activities: he is the founder of the city's highly successful concert series Plathner’s Eleven and was its artistic director for seven years. In 2014 he inititated the competition Musical Talent Exchange of Hanover, which instantaneously became famous in Germany whereas Gintaras Januševičius piano academy in Lithuania,  Klaipėda Piano Masters is also on the up-and-up.

What can classical music give to people in the age of technologies when the senses are fed in different ways? "Incredibly much," Gintaras Januševičius is convinced. The pianist is fond of experimenting and likes to approach each concert as an adventure: he dares for unexpected concert venues and formats as well as introduces the audiences to unheard music or offers innovative perspectives to familiar pieces. The pianist is invited to perform in Germany, Lithuania, the USA, Brazil, China, Italy, France, Spain and elsewhere.

This concert will feature Gintaras Januševičius in the legendary American composer George Gershwin's Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra. Even though conservative critics at first accepted the innovative work with reservation, Gershwin's Piano Concerto immediately won admiration among the public and professional reviewers alike. The music critic Samuel Chotzinoff wrote: "Gershwin alone actually expresses us. He is the present, with all its audacity, impertinence, its feverish delight in motion."

The second part of the concert will offer selected excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet played by the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.

The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra will be led by one of the most notable Latvian conductors Mārtiņš Ozoliņš, who is also the principal conductor of the Latvian National Opera and has been Head of the Orchestra Conducting at the Latvian Academy of Music since 2010.