World Music Days 2008 in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Composers’ Union, the Vilnius’ Festivals and the Lithuanian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) are proud to announce the ISCM World Music Days / 18th Gaida Festival, from 24 October to 8 November 2008 in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

This will be the first large-scale international new music gathering in the Baltic Region, and the first ISCM World Music Days in this part of Europe.

The festival has invited composers from all over the world to submit works for this occasion. Two focus composers, Jonathan Harvey (GB) and Peter Eötvös (HU), was a part of an international jury selecting works which underline the chosen festival theme “InBetween”, looking at contemporary music as transit zone and middle ground.

The work of the focus composers will be featured throughout the festival, with the continental premiere of Of Love and Other Demons, a new large-scale opera by Eötvös, in collaboration with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the renowned Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and the world premiere of a new work by Harvey for cello octet.

Following the festival theme, ISCM World Music Days / Gaida 2008 will also embrace music projects that are acting as transit zone. Lithuanian foremost female composer Onutė Narbutaitė, also a jury member, has accepted to write a new piece for All Souls' Day, which will bring together all the choirs of Vilnius and its surroundings to sing the same piece, synchronously, in different streets and on different squares of the city.

To underline the international ambitions of the festival, ISCM World Music Days / Gaida 2008 has for the first time invited an international artistic curator, Lieven Bertels (BE / NL), who will be involved in the implementation of several of the festival's projects.


Source: www.wmd2008.org/ and www.culturelive.lt