Open To The World ’23: VOCES8 & Bel Canto Choir Vilnius
An exceptional Friday night: VOCES8, the Grammy-nominated world’s best British vocal ensemble, and Bel Canto Choir Vilnius, the best choir in Lithuania, reunited in Vilnius for the third time! They presented a new festive program harmoniously combining classical, contemporary, and popular music.
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius presented a special evening in Vilnius – the first vocal music festival Open To The World 2023 concert. On December 1, at the cozy St Catherine’s Church in Vilnius, VOCES8 and the Bel Canto Choir Vilnius performed a unique, stylistically diverse, heart-touching musical program. The concert also featured pianist Motiejus Bazaras, solo roles were performed by the choir’s singers Mindaugas Rumšas (saxophone), Justinas Stanevičius, and Agnė Bagdonavičienė (vocals).
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A long-standing friendship with talented VOCES8
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius and VOCES8 have had a long-standing friendship since 2018. Since then, both groups have performed twice in the Open To The World project and given four blockbuster concerts.
VOCES8 is a world-famous octet from the United Kingdom that performs on the world’s most famous stages and is renowned for its highly sensitive, luminous, and elegant sound. The group, hailed by critics as “the Rolls-Royce of British a cappella ensembles,” uses an astonishingly meticulous method that controls and harmonizes the natural vibrato of each of its members and, if necessary, neutralizes it completely. This creates a unique and silky-smooth sound.
The vocal ensemble’s repertoire effortlessly combined music from various styles and eras, from 18th-century polyphonies to original jazz and popular music arrangements.
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius program included works by the world’s most famous contemporary composers, such as Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, and Lithuanian composer Donatas Zakaras. Additionally, the choir performed several popular music arrangements.
This time, the choir surprised the audience with a striking choreography to accompany composer Jake Runestad’s energetic Nyon Nyon and Billy Joel’s famous River Of Dreams. Paulius Šinkūnas created the choreography for the choir.
A one-of-a-kind evening: VOCES8 & Bel Canto Choir Vilnius in the cozy St. Catherine’s Church
The concert featured a spectacular finale, with a special highlight being the treasure of Ukrainian heritage, the song “Shchedryk.” The British and Lithuanians performed this song together as a call to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
“Shchedryk” tells the story of a swallow who flies into a man’s house and, with its song, tells him of a rich and beautiful life when spring comes. Composed of a four-part archaic motif, “Shchedryk” was arranged in 1916 by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. Its melody later found new life in the English Christmas song “Carol of the Bells,” now an integral part of festive repertoire worldwide.
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius first performed “Shchedryk” in 2010. The song’s recording remains the most popular on the choir’s Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube channels and has been used on the soundtracks of several films. One such film is the biographical drama “Sisi & Ich,” which debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
Concert Program
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius
Evening Prayer
Ola Gjeilo
O Magnum Mysterium
Morten Lauridsen
Conversion of Saul
Z. Randall Stroope
Laiškai Sofijai
Donatas Zakaras
Hurt
Trent Reznor, aranžuotė Eric Whitacre
The Seal Lullaby
Eric Whitacre
Jealous
Labrinth, aranžuotė Owen Ladd
White Winter Hymnal
Fleet Foxes | Pentatonix
Nyon Nyon
Jake Runestad
VOCES8
May It Be
Enya, arr. Matthew Sheeran
Rorate Caeli Desuper
William Byrd
The Unexpected Early Hour
Reena Esmail
The Sleeping Child
Bob Chilcott
Lully, Lulla, Lullay
Philip Stopford
Maria Durch ein Dornwald Ging
Traditional, arr. Stefan Claas
The Oxen
Jonathan Rathbone
All Seems Beautiful to Me
Eric Whitacre
Vincent
Don McLean, arr. Jim Clements
Silver Bells
Jay Livingston & Ray Evans, arr. Blake Morgan
Let it Snow
Jule Steyn, arr. Jim Clements
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
John Coots & Haven Gillespie, arr. Jim Clements
VOCES8 & Bel Canto Choir Vilnius Together
The Long Road
Ēriks Ešenvalds
This Is My Song
Jean Sibelius, arr. Blake Morgan
Shchedryk (Carol Of The Bells)
Traditional, arr. Mykola Leontovych
Artists & Performers
VOCES8 (artistic director Barnaby Smith)
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius (artistic director & conductor Milda Švelnienė)
Motiejus Bazaras (piano)
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius’ artistic director Milda Švelnienė, choirmasters Raminta Gocentienė and Stasė Žaltauskaitė-Malūnavičienė, vocal coaches Eglė Stundžiaitė and Eimantas Bešėnas. Open To The World producers: Bel Canto Choir Vilnius and Audrius Valatkevičius.
Sponsors & Partners
Open To The World 2023
Bel Canto Choir Vilnius’ Open To The World is a unique choral music project in Lithuania that has become a tradition. This year it will evolve into Vilnius’s first-ever vocal-choral music festival. It aims to introduce modern choral music, the world’s best choirs, vocal ensembles, and composers to Lithuanian audiences, promote Western culture, and create, innovate, and improve. Together.
Open To The World 2023 guests include Grammy-nominated VOCES8, the world’s best and most popular British vocal ensemble; Zero8, Sweden’s best and most popular men’s choir; Sweden’s premier vocal ensemble Ringmasters, Dagilėlis, the best boys choir in Lithuania, and Norwegian vocalist and guitarist Marius Beck.
The festival is sponsored by engineering, prefab, and construction company INHUS, Business Garden Vilnius office park, Newsec, the largest property consultancy in Scandinavia, and the Baltics, Vilnius City Municipality, and the Lithuanian Council for Culture. The project’s media partner is LRT TV, and its advertising partner is Ogilvy advertising agency.