News

UK audiences to be treated to a unique fusion of Lithuanian classical music, art and digital technology

• Conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) concert will feature the symphonic poem The Sea by the most prominent Lithuanian artist of the 20th century Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

• Visitors can also take free immersive VR experience session Trail of Angels. Directed by award winning Lithuanian film director, screenwriter and editor Kristina Buožytė and visual effects producer Vitalijus Žukas, it premiered in the 75th Venice international film festival

• February 14 & 16, 2019 at the Symphony Hall Birmingham

• Images, video and downloads: https://we.tl/t-7HEWeWsspF

To celebrate 101 years since the restoration of Lithuania’s statehood on the 16 February 2019, the premiere will be held in Birmingham, bringing together Lithuanian classical music, art and digital technology. Conducted by one of the greatest living conductors Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) concert will feature the symphonic poem The Sea by the most prominent Lithuanian artist of the 20th century Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. In the Symphony Hall foyer the audience will be able to experience an immersive virtual reality (VR) animation Trail of Angels. Directed by Lithuanian film director, screenwriter and editor Kristina Buožytė and visual effects producer Vitalijus Žukas, it premiered in the 75th Venice international film festival.

Lithuanian M. Gražinytė Tyla was named music director of CBSO in February 2016 following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. This February Mirga was announced as the world’s best female conductors by Classic FM in 2018, the Lithuanian conductor is only the third woman to land music director’s post in the UK.

The concert will also feature Peer Gynt, the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen‘s play written by Edvard Grieg. To complement the music, Birmingham-born artist Norman Perryman will create artworks live in concert.

In the VR experience viewers will be transported to a mysterious world inspired by M.K. Čiurlionis paintings and music. The surroundings react to the viewer’s gaze, bringing it closer to the original experience of viewing the paintings. It took more than two years to create this virtual reality animation project, using elements from 60 paintings.

Stephen Maddock OBE, Chief Executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra commented: "Combining digital technologies with classical music and art can be a very powerful way of different art forms illuminating each other – visual images can add to the understanding of even the most abstract music, and music can bring images to life (as it has for more than a century in the film industry)."

K. Buožytė said, "Čiurlionis was a forerunner of multimedia and combined different types of art to create a unique universe. Every picture of Čiurlionis is like a window into the mysterious mind of the artist. Virtual reality allows you to enter the world of this unique artist.  ".

Artist and composer M.K. Čiurlionis, is a unique figure in the history of European arts. Judging by the breath of his artistic activities and diverse interests, Čiurlionis can be seen as a truly Renaissance individual. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstracts art in Europe.  Over a short, mere decade-long career, he composed nearly 400 musical compositions. During those same brief years he also created hundreds of paintings and etchings, as well as several literary works and poems. A symphonic poem The Sea composed by Čiurlionis between 1903 and 1907 and dedicated to his Warsaw friend and protectress Mrs. B. Wolman. On a visit to the Wolman summer home in the Crimea, Čiurlionis first saw the Black Sea. This was the first time he experienced a sea other than the Baltic, and he was overwhelmed by its vastness.

Justė Kostikovaitė, Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in the UK said, "It's a dream come true to introduce Lithuania’s M.K. Čiurlionis to a foreign audiences. In the absence of a contemporary documentary film about most famous Lithuanian artist, we are able to tell about Čiurlionis' creative path through virtual dimension".

Stephen Maddock OBE added: "It’s true that Čiurlionis is not that well known outside Lithuania – but I am sure that this will continue to change with the passionate advocacy of artists such as Mirga and Normal Perryman.  The music is very fine, and having heard Miske (In the Forest) last year I can testify to its great beauty and colourful sense of mystery".

This immersive digital technology, music and art experience brought to Birmingham by Lithuanian innovation house and software development service company TeleSoftas, an award-winning digital creative studio SneakyBox, Lithuanian Art and Culture in the UK, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Lithuanian Embassy in the UK, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian Culture Attache in the UK.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact Justė Kostikovaitė, Cultural Attaché, Lithuanian Embassy in the UK: +447526065309, +442075922857

Virtual Reality bookings - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ciurlionis-vr-experience-tickets-55526773073

LISTINGS

Sibelius and Grieg

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Thursday 14 February, 7.30pm

Tickets £13 - £50   

More information: www.cbso.co.uk/event/sibelius-and-grieg

Peer Gynt and Čiurlionis The Sea

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Saturday 16 February, 7.00pm

Tickets £13 - £50   

More information: www.cbso.co.uk/event/peer-gynt-and-the-sea

Notes to Editors

About Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (born 29 August 1986) was named Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 following in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons. Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. Gražinytė-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009. A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, she was born into a musical family. Before pursuing her studies at the Music Conservatory in Zurich, she studied at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in choral and orchestral conducting from the University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. Mirga has participated in numerous master classes and conducting workshops and worked with many established conductors and professors such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Johannes Schlaefli, Herbert Blomstedt, Colin Metters, and Kurt Masur.

About Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875 – 1911)

M.K. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau, and was representative of the fin de siecle epoch. Judging by the breath of his artistic activities and diverse interests, Čiurlionis can be seen as a truly Renaissance individual. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstracts art in Europe.  Over a short, mere decade-long career, he composed nearly 400 musical compositions, including two large-scale symphonic poems, an overture, two piano sonatas, a string quartet, and a cantata for chorus and orchestra.  During those same brief years he also created approximately 400 paintings and etchings, as well as several literary works and poems, while still finding time to experiment with art photography. Čiurlionis’ painting captivates not only with its mysterious content and picturesque imagery, but also with its original artistic form. Čiurlionis’ art is closely aligned with European Symbolism but his ability to think fairly independently from the leading artists of the time let him create paintings of totally new plastic form, namely pictorial sonatas, preludes and fugues. By fusing painting and music into a unique artistic formula, these paintings have significantly enriched European Modernism. With his investigations into the plastic vocabulary of painting he cut his way into Modernism much deeper than any other artist of Central and Eastern Europe. He broke ground with his ingenious method of abstraction, which is based not on colour, but on the graphic-spatial organisation of the painting, offering one of the most unique formulas for applying the musical principle in painting. Thus he belongs to the ranks of the pioneers of abstract art.

About Trail of Angels/ Experience the Onneness   / A meditative interactive VR animation

Trail of Angels is a tribute to the precursor of multimedia artists and one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe - the most outstanding Lithuanian creator Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, who was breaking the boundaries of disciplines to make a total creation with his own cosmogony. Trail of Angels is an immersive VR animation which invites the viewer to explore a mysterious Afterlife World based on M.K.Čiurlionis paintings and music, observing and interacting with the surrounding during visually stunning day-night cycles. The surrounding reacts to viewer’s glance, bringing it closer towards the original looks of the paintings. The magic journey of the Trail of Angels begins with M. Čiurlionis symphonic poem The Forest, subtly moving to The Sea and then onto objects from the paintings Peace, Adoration of the Sun, Eternity and others. It took more than two years to create this virtual reality animation project, using elements of 60 paintings.

About Lithuanian Culture Institute

The Lithuanian Culture Institute (LCI) works towards a continuous and contemporary representation of Lithuanian culture abroad. It is achieved by organising cultural exchanges and incoming mobility for the arts experts. In addition, LCI produces many arts events, such as eponymous yearly Vilnius Book Fair, the upcoming Lithuanian arts festival in Tel Aviv.