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28 November, 2010. “Sandglasses” for four cellos, live electronics and the installation of video, light and tulle (2010) by the Lithuanian composer Justė Janulytė will be premiered at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. This work, realized in collaboration with the video artist Luca Scarzella, stage designer Jūratė Paulėkaitė, light designer Eugenijus Sabaliauskas and Gaida Ensemble cellists, is initiated and supported by the European network for the creation and promotion of new music Réseau Varèse.

Author of the idea and composer Justė Janulytė: “Sandglasses” explores acoustic, visual and symbolic meanings of a sand timer, as a phenomenon. The inspiration of the piece is a simultaneous launch of several sandglasses of different capacity and duration. This idea is materialized in music by a polytemporal canon played by cellos, […] the sounds produced live are being recorded, they keep multiplying and layering before finally interlacing into a dense micropoliphonic texture which covers, floods and replaces the real sources of sound.

The musical idea is visualized by the purpose-built cylinder screens, made of tulle, where video images and light effects are projected. They extend and transform the performers’ existence on the stage while creating fictions and submerging spectators into various perceptive experiences.

The metaphoric sand which seeps from the sandglasses, as a sediment of the passing time, accumulates and submerges the imprisoned individuals. Their identities transform, fade and vanish until the glasses fill up and the relentless operation of the chronometers stops. Everything freezes and the reverse process of purification starts.”

Justė Janulytė (b. 1982/Vilnius) studied composition with prof. B. Kutavičius, O. Balakauskas, H. Tulve, L. Francesconi, A. Solbiati and others at the M.K.Čiurlionis Art School, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Milan “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatoire and in various masterclasses.

Janulytė's music was performed in Europe, USA and Canada, by Lithuanian National Symphony, Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice (Venice), Gothenburg Opera Orchestra, Orchestre de Flûtes Français (Paris), Sinfonietta Rīga, Lithuanian Chamber and St. Christopher Chamber orchestras, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble Bit20 (Bergen), Orchestrutopica (Lisbon), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Danish Radio´s chamber choir, Quasar (Montreal) and Xasax (Paris) saxophone quartets, cellists Anton Lukoszevieze (UK), Francesco Dillon (IT) and others. She has participated in various festivals, such as “World New Music Days” (Sweden, 2009), “Musikprotokoll im steirischem Herbst” (2009, Graz) “La Biennale di Venezia” (2008), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2008), “Gaida” (2005-2007), “Jauna muzika” (2007, 2009) and others.

Justė Janulytė first came into public view in 2004 when her graduation work White music for 15 strings was awarded as the best chamber piece at the competition organized by the Lithuanian Composers' Union. Furthermore, she has won the prize for the best orchestral work (textile, 2008) and the prize for the best chamber work (Elongation of Nights, 2010) at the same competition. In 2009 Aquarelle for choir won the 1st prize (in the category of composers under 30) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Since 2006 Janulyte has been teaching a course on contemporary music language at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The composer has also written critics and articles on music. Lives and works in Vilnius and Milan.

The project at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival has been supported by the Lithuanian Cultural Foundation, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and Lithuanian Embassy in the UK.

28 November, 6pm. Bates Mill, Colne Rd, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD1 3AG. Tickets £15 (£13 concessions). Online tickets: http://www.hcmf.co.uk/event/show/181