Concert by Onutė Gražinytė and Simona Venslovaitė

Pianist Onutė Gražinytė and violinist Simona Venslovaitė invite you to a concert program centered on women as free creators, performers, and seekers of their own voice and identity, fighting for the right to be heard and recognized. These themes are close to the musicians’ hearts, which is why the program will feature female composers from the past few centuries—exceptional artistic figures whose voices, across different eras, cultures, and aesthetics, bear witness to unique experiences that women can most readily relate to.

The first composer featured in the program is Clara Schumann, who maintained close ties with the most prominent artists of her time and made a significant contribution to the development of classical music. She was not only a talented composer but also an active concert pianist, capable of balancing an intense artistic career with family life—she raised as many as eight children. The program will open with three romances, at times subtle and delicate, at other times effervescent. They reveal an intimate world of romanticism, in which the pages of music become for the composer an emotional diary of earthly experiences and bold dreams.

Grażyna Bacewicz, who came from a Lithuanian-Polish family, speaks with a modern, energetic, and intellectual musical voice in her Fourth Sonata. There are quite a few contrasting elements at play here: strength and intellectualism are closely intertwined, creating a harmonious connection with natural emotional intuition. One can sense the anxiety of the postwar period, but also the aspirations of creative freedom. After the intermission, another romance will bring us back to the world of Romanticism—a gentle, lyrical, and nostalgic musical confession by composer Amy Beach, imbued with the warmth of late Romanticism.

To ensure that the works of a composer of Lithuanian descent are also featured during the concert, the program is complemented by Diana Čemerytė’s piece “Pas de deux,” which opens up a contemporary, sensitive, and personal dialogue. This is music that invites you not only to listen, but also to be within it, to experience the delicate balance between inner peace and constant movement. In the composer’s own words: “It is a conversation of rich colors and the rustle of a bare violin, an alternation between a piano monologue and long violin lines. It is symbolic that the piece was begun while two lives were stirring in the womb (steps for two) and completed while dreaming of white cherry-blossom-covered snow-covered paths.” To conclude, we will experience Mel Bonis’s sonata, which exudes elegance and refined French color, yet is also imbued with drama, great scope, and an exceptionally dynamic emotional spectrum.

Imbued with exceptional sensitivity, inner strength, and a rich variety of emotions, this program becomes not only a musical journey through different eras and styles, but also an invitation to hear what has long been silenced or underappreciated. It is a vivid, sensitive, and multi-layered narrative about the female voice in music—its fragility, strength, and inexhaustible creative power.

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This performance by Onutė Gražinytė and Simona Venslovaitė at the Magic of Magic Club is part of the “RE:TURN” project. The project is partially funded by the Vilnius City Municipality. Media partners: LRT, VilniusFM.lt.

RE:TURN is a project by the Magic of Music Club aimed at bringing professional Lithuanian musicians who currently live abroad or have recently returned to Lithuania into Vilnius’s cultural scene. These are musicians who often have significant achievements on the international stage and are well-known in other countries, but who have not yet had enough opportunities to perform frequently in their homeland. This series aims to provide them with the opportunity to take their rightful place among their peers in Lithuania’s musical life and to earn the recognition of music lovers in Vilnius.